It’s our final league game of the season tomorrow and we face a Watford side looking to survive the drop. We’ve got nothing left to play for and the best league position we can achieve is 8th if other results go our way. Watford will be desperate for a result and I fear that hunger will make them very dangerous. In all honesty, I’d prefer it if Watford stayed up over Villa but ultimately a win would probably see us put Watford to the sword. I know a lot of Arsenal fans on twitter want us to get ‘revenge’ on Watford because of Deeney’s ‘cojones’ comments a few years ago. It’s a bit pathetic but that's Arsenal twitter for you. Hopefully, we can beat Watford and they still manage to stay up on goal difference but that all depends on Villa.
It will be interesting to see what team selection Arteta decides to go with. Will he decide to go full strength in hope of creating momentum heading into the final? Will he rest players to avoid injuries? These questions create a major selection dilemma for Arteta but in my opinion, we should definitely go full strength. Our best players need to be kept sharp so that they can produce their best in the cup final. It’s not worth playing some fringe players because there’s nothing left to play for. We should be looking to win every game and that will only be possible with the strongest possible XI especially against a fired up Watford team.
My team for the game (3-4-3)
Martinez
Holding
Luiz
Tierney
Bellerin
Ceballos
Xhaka
Saka
Pepe
Lacazette
Aubameyang
That’s probably our strongest team at the moment. Saka will want to have a better game to prove he’s worthy of a start in the final. Bellerin also will need to play well because I think Maitland-Niles will be breathing down his neck. Should start our best front 3 with Lacazette dropping deep to hold the ball up with Pepe and Aubameyang making runs in behind.
My prediction for the game is 3-1 to Arsenal. I think it will be a tight game but we should have too much quality for them. If you fancy a flutter, Betfair gives you 12/1 on that at the time of writing. I'd have a bang on that with Aubameyang to score first and Xhaka to be carded. You heard it here first.
JH
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