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Arsene Wenger has some tough decisions to make for his team selection for the Premier League game against Watford on Tuesday night.
The Gunners had heavily rotated the team against Southampton in the FA Cup but that team performed really well and Wenger may want to keep some of that team together to enable smoother momentum. With a big game against Chelsea coming up at the weekend, Wenger has to ensure he picks the perfect team for this fixture.
Goalkeeper: Petr Cech
Big Pete will be back between the sticks for this fixture.
Defence: Hector Bellerin, Shkodran Mustafi, Laurent Koscielny, Kieran Gibbs
Bellerin, Mustafi and Gibbs should keep their places in the team, with the rested Koscielny coming in for Holding, who had a solid game at Southampton. Gibbs, for me, is on better form than Monreal of late and deserves some more game time. If he is playing better than Monreal then surely, at his age, he deserves to be starting in the Premier League and not just cup competitions.
Midfield: Francis Coquelin, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain; Lucas Perez, Mesut Ozil, Alexis Sanchez
Lucas deserves to stay in the line up after a top quality performance vs. Southampton. I think Aaron Ramsey, Theo Walcott and Alex Iwobi will be used on the wing in the ‘bigger’ games, so this would be a good chance for Lucas to get more minutes under his belt. The Ox was incredibly impressive in the centre against Southampton and he is unlikely to get a chance there against the likes of Chelsea, Bayern and Liverpool - so why not give him more game time to develop in this game. Alongside him I expect Francis Coquelin to come in, the Frenchman is the only midfield anchor available with Granit Xhaka suspended and Mohammed Elneny still away on international duty. Alexis and Ozil were both left out of the line up at St. Mary’s and should be fresh and ready to make the difference tomorrow.
Striker: Olivier Giroud
His last game was far from his finest, but the Frenchman was rested in the FA Cup and will come back into this game fresh and keen to prove a point. If he doesn’t perform well in this fixture then I can see him being dropped for the trip to Chelsea, where Alexis Sanchez could lead the line. Danny Welbeck is also an option, he proved his ability against Southampton but is unlikely to start two games in 4 days considering the amount of time he has spent on the sidelines.
