Arsenal welcome Newcastle United to the Emirates Stadium on Saturday evening with the two clubs vying for a place in the fourth round of the FA Cup.
The Gunners endured their worst start to a league season in over 60 years and were being talked about as possible relegation candidates after losing eight of their opening 14 games.
However, Mikel Arteta has managed to steady the ship as Arsenal beat Chelsea on Boxing Day before securing vital wins over Brighton and West Brom to lift them up to 11th place and just six points off the top four.
Arsenal will now switch their focus to defending the FA Cup they won back in August and the North Londoners have been handed a tough third round match after being pitted against Premier League rivals Newcastle.
The Geordies have some of the craziest sports fans in the world so it should work to Arsenal’s advantage that the game will be played behind closed doors but Arteta won’t be taking anything for granted on Saturday night.
Team news
Thomas Partey is back in full training after recovering from a thigh injury that’s kept him out for the past month but it remains to be seen whether Arteta will risk the midfielder tomorrow.
Arsenal have no fresh injury concerns to worry about and Gabriel could be in contention after returning to full training having missed the last three games due to a positive covid test.
Arteta is expected to rotate his squad for this game so we could see the likes of David Luiz, Mo Elneny, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Willian, Gabriel Martinelli and Nicolas Pepe being given recalls with several key men rested.
Newcastle will be without Allan Saint-Maximin while Ryan Fraser is also ruled out due to an on-going injury. Jamaal Lascelles and Jamal Lewis are doubts so they’ll be assessed ahead of the game.
Prediction
Arsenal 3-1 Newcastle: The Gunners come into the game in good form and produced one of their best performances of the season during the 4-0 win over West Brom last weekend so they’ll be in confident mood.
Add to that, Newcastle are winless in their last six games in all competitions so it’s difficult to see past a home win. Even a weakened Arsenal team should have enough quality to win on home soil so we’re predicting a 3-1 win for the Gunners.
Betting
Arsenal are priced as the 1/2 favourites with the bookies to win this game while Newcastle are 5/1 to get the job done inside the ninety minutes. The draw is available at 18/5. Our prediction of 3-1 Arsenal can be backed at odds of 9/1.
