This game for Arsenal is the start of another era at the football club, Emery’s sacking came very quickly after a draw at the weekend to Southampton and a loss in midweek to Frankfurt which was by no means surprising.
Freddie Ljungberg takes over temporarily as the list of available replacements stacks up, the Swede knows the club very well and he was of course part of the real Arsenal glory days. If you see the likes of Chelsea and United hiring club legends it seems to really change the mentality of the club and since Wenger, Arsenal have been crying out for someone to take the reins and redirect what is a struggling club.
Arsenal’s problems seem to be stemming defensively but they do have the options to perform well and just haven’t been doing so. Arsenal’s away record is miles away from where it should be for a team with Champions League aspirations, they’ve only won one away game this season and that was way back on the first day of the season at St James Park. They’re also only won one game in their last nine which was a scrappy win in the Europa League against Guimaraes with two late free-kicks from Nicolas Pepe.
Norwich, prior to their 2-0 win against Everton at the weekend were in a major slump of form which saw them pick up 4 points from a possible 33, conceding an average of 2.18 goals a game across the fixtures. Teemu Pukki started the season fantastically well scoring six goals in his first five PL games but has drawn a blank in the eight matches since and has gone off the boil alongside the Canaries.
Todd Cantwell has shown glimmers of hope but has picked up a knock and is an injury doubt for today’s game, as are David Luiz and Hector Bellerin who’ve both got minor problems that may rule them out today.
Arsenal should have the strength to dispose of Norwich today with the new manager factor added, but if it’s the squad that’s the problem then Arsenal could be in for a very difficult game. You simply cannot ignore that Norwich beat Man City earlier on in the season at home, this game looks bound to have plenty of goals, and a result-based selection would be too difficult to choose.
I’d suggest a bet builder for a game in which should have goals, cards and pure drama.
Line-ups for the game are also as follows:
Norwich: Krul, Aarons, Zimmermann, Godfrey, Byram, Amadou, Trybull, Cantwell, McLean, Hernández, Pukki.
Subs: Roberts, Vrancic, Lewis, Buendía, Stiepermann, Fährmann, Srbeny.
Arsenal: Leno, Chambers, Mustafi, Luiz, Kolasinac; Xhaka; Guendouzi, Willock; Ozil; Aubameyang, Lacazette.
Subs- Tierney, Sokratis, Torreira, Pepe, Martinez, Martinelli, Saka
samyets 