Smith Rowe starts, Kiwior out, Trossard decision amid two Arsenal changes vs Aston Villa
Mikel Arteta faces perhaps one of the toughest seven days remaining in the season. The Arsenal manager needs to balance this weekend’s tough test against an Aston Villa side who have already beaten the Gunners this season andthen a flight to Germany to face Bayern Munich just days later.
Bayern Munich play on Saturday gaining an extra day’s rest whilst Arsenal had to play Villa on Sunday because of their participation in the UEFA Europa Conference League. They host Lille at Villa Park on Thursday night meaning two fewer days to recover compared to their weekend opponents.
Arteta has decisions to make to respond to the midweek draw with Bayern and prepare his squad for the weekend. Douglas Luiz will not be present for the visitors after receiving his tenth yellow card of the season.
With that in mind and the midfield question marks that Unai Emery faces, there is scope for a restructure in the middle and bringing Emile Smith Rowe who had a man-of-the-match performance against Luton Town certainly is an option. Declan Rice and Martin Odegaard are of course starting the game with a switch to Thomas Partey and the typical midfield structure a potential option the following game.
Jakub Kiwior struggled against Leroy Sane and both Leon Bailey and Moussa Diaby offer further pacey challenges for the Pole. Therefore Takehiro Tomiyasu comes in to prepare for the test with Sane in midweek and a chance to acclimatise to a starting role for the first time in quite some time.
Ben White, William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhaes are all likely to continue, none have shown much in the way of fading in games and Kiwior plus Oleksandr Zinchenko are present as options from the bench should a late change to save fitness be needed. David Raya will not
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