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[Image] Ceballos & Nelson start in 4-3-3 | How Arsenal should line-up vs Newcastle

By on August 10, 2019

Reiss Nelson Arsenal

Arsenal begin the new season away from home as we head to the north east to take on Newcastle United on Sunday afternoon. This is the line-up I’d like Unai Emery to select…

Goalkeeper: Leno

Leno was excellent during the second half of last season and he’s now the undisputed No.1 so let’s hope for a big season from the German stopper. Martinez will be his back-up on the bench.

Defence: Maitland-Niles, Sokratis, Luiz, Monreal

It looks like the boss is going with a back four this year and I hope we see Luiz make his debut following his deadline day move from Chelsea. Chambers has done reasonably well in pre-season but I still think Sokratis and Luiz are the starting pair – at least until Holding returns to fitness.

Kolasinac hasn’t travelled to Newcastle following another ‘security incident’ at his home so Monreal will start at left-back with Tierney still at least four weeks away from recovering from a groin injury. Bellerin is also a couple of months away from being back in contention so Maitland-Niles will continue at right-back.

Midfield: Xhaka, Ceballos, Willock

It’s going to be interesting to see how Emery lines-up in midfield this season but I’d go with three in the middle of the park tomorrow. Willock has seen plenty of action in pre-season and has certainly impressed so he deserves to start at St James’ Park.

I’m no Granit Xhaka fan but Torreira isn’t 100% match fit yet so we’ll have to stick with the Swiss international for now. Guendouzi will probably get the nod but I’d love to see Ceballos given his competitive debut. He looks like a real player and his ball carrying in midfield is something we’ve sorely missed in recent years.

pierre-emerick aubameyang arsenal

Attack: Nelson, Lacazette, Aubameyang

Sadly Ozil has also been forced to stay in north London following some security issues at his home last week so he won’t be available tomorrow afternoon. It’s a shame this sort of thing happens these days but the safety of the player and his family comes first.

Summer signing Nicolas Pepe has only had a few training sessions since returning to pre-season training following his exploits at the AFCON so he’s not 100% fit yet. I hope he’s involved in the squad and we might see him off the bench.

Mkhitaryan is an option for Emery but I hope Nelson is given his chance in attack tomorrow. He’s impressed in patches during pre-season so let’s see how he does in the Premier League.

Lacazette has been in full training the past few days so he should be available after recovering from an ankle knock and the Frenchman will lead the line up front against Newcastle.

Aubameyang has looked sharp in pre-season so obviously he should start. It’s going to be interesting to see how Emery fits everybody in and ideally Auba and Laca would play as a pair up front but I have a feeling we’ll see the Gabon international playing from the wing a lot this season.

This is the starting eleven I hope we’ll see:

football formations