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Preview: Burnley v Arsenal, attacker ruled out, likely line-ups + prediction

By on November 26, 2017

alexis sanchez arsenal

Arsenal have a great chance to climb in to the top four when we take on Burnley at Turf Moor this afternoon.

Saturday’s results went for us as Tottenham were held to a 1-1 draw by West Brom while Liverpool and Chelsea drew 1-1 at Anfield so three of our main rivals dropped points.

It means that victory this afternoon would see Arsenal jump in to fourth above Tottenham and be just one point behind third-placed Chelsea so it’s vital we don’t waste this opportunity.

Last weekend’s win over Spurs should have given us huge confidence and with the first team enjoying a rest in midweek, we have no excuse for not putting in a performance today.

However, it’s going to be a tough game as Burnley are in superb form and currently sit level on 22 points with Arsenal so Sean Dyche’s men could actually climb up to fourth themselves with a win on home soil.

Team news

Arsene Wenger has no new injury worries to contend with so we have virtually a fully-fit squad with Theo Walcott the only player missing as he’s still feeling the effects of illness.

Obviously Santi Cazorla is also out but there are no guarantees when he’ll be back or even if he’ll play top flight football again after a horrific ankle injury.

The boss will make wholesale changes to his starting eleven after resting our big guns for the Europa League defeat to Cologne on Thursday night.

Danny Welbeck is fit and available for selection after Wenger confirmed his substitution at half-time on Thursday was pre-planned and he hadn’t picked up a knock.

Burnley will have striker Chris Wood available again but Tom Heaton, Dean Marney and Jon Walters are all out.

Preferred line-up

Most of the side picks itself. I really liked Shkodran Mustafi in the middle of defence last week so hopefully he continues there while Aaron Ramsey and Granit Xhaka finally looked like a partnership against Spurs – let’s hope that continues today.

Alexandre Lacazette better start up front as I’ll be raging if Wenger drops him for another tough away game while let’s pray Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil are up for it this weekend. They were both excellent against Tottenham but were woeful away to Man City earlier this month so you just don’t know what to expect from them these days.

This would be my line-up:

Prediction

Turf Moor is never an easy place to go never mind when Burnley are in good form so I’m expecting a tough game this afternoon. They’ve already beaten Chelsea and drawn with Liverpool and Spurs this season so they are more than capable of causing us problems.

The good news is we have won our last six games against Burnley so I hope we can continue that fine run today. It will be a tough battle, but I’m backing the boys to bring home the three points….just. Burnley 1-2 Arsenal