4-3-3: Emery To Make 3 Key Changes | Expected Arsenal Line-Up vs Chelsea

Arsenal will look to bounce back from the defeat to Man City when they take on Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Saturday evening. Here is the side Gooner Mac thinks Unai Emery will select for the game:

Goalkeeper: Petr Cech retained the No.1 shirt for the City game despite Arsenal splashing out around £19m on Bernd Leno this summer. Cech made several important saves against Pep Guardiola’s men and Emery has already confirmed he will keep his place on Saturday so Leno is going to have to bide his time.

Defence: Arsenal have suffered a fresh blow with the news that Ainsley Maitland-Niles has been ruled out for up to two months with a fractured leg that he sustained against Man City last weekend.

Sead Kolasinac is also out until October with a knee injury but Nacho Monreal is back in contention after returning to full training this week so the Spaniard should be recalled at left-back.

Hector Bellerin should keep his place ahead of Stephan Lichtsteiner while Shkodran Mustafi will continue alongside Sokratis with Laurent Koscielny not due back in training until November. Kostantinos Mavropanos and Rob Holding will battle for a place on the bench against Chelsea.

Midfield: Lucas Torreira made an impressive cameo appearance off the bench on Sunday so I expect the Uruguayan international to be handed his first start since arriving from Sampdoria this summer.

Emery went with Matteo Guendouzi in the holding position against City and the youngster put-in an encouraging display but I think he’ll be the man to make way against the Blues on Saturday.

Granit Xhaka is likely to keep his place and it will be interesting to see what Emery does with Aaron Ramsey. The Welshman was deployed in an advanced role just off the striker against City and I don’t think it suited Ramsey at all. Hopefully we see him drop back alongside Xhaka in a 4-3-3 formation this time around.

Attack: Alexandre Lacazette made an instant impact off the bench on Sunday so I’d be shocked if he wasn’t recalled against Chelsea. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has been talking-up his relationship with Lacazette this week and says he’s happy to play on the wing to accommodate the Frenchman so we could see the boss start them both this weekend.

Mesut Ozil wasn’t at his best against City but neither way Henrikh Mkhitaryan and I think the Armenian international is the man most likely to be dropped if Emery does recall Lacazette.

Danny Welbeck is pushing for a return to the squad after working on his fitness this week while Alex Iwobi and Reiss Nelson are also vying for places on the bench.

Here is how I think we’ll see Arsenal line-up: