The Gunners were held last time out by Eddie Howe’s hardy Newcastle, who used their dirty tactics to frustrate them....CONTINUE READING
After Manchester City narrowly defeated Chelsea on Thursday night, their lead at the top was subsequently reduced to five points.
In the upcoming weeks, Mikel Arteta’s team has a couple of massive Premier League games to play, but first they have to deal with this potential rough patch.
Oxford United, a third-tier team, will be playing Arsenal for the tenth time ever and is hoping to pull off a major upset.
The hosts have no injury concerns ahead of Monday’s game and will field a full-strength starting lineup.
Former Liverpool youngster Cameron Brannagan, as well as striker Matty Taylor, will be key players to watch.
Arteta will heavily rotate his team for Monday’s match, and we should see something resembling Arsenal’s starting XI throughout the Europa League group stage.
As a result, players such as Matt Turner, Rob Holding, Mohamed Elneny, Fabio Vieira, and Marquinhos are in line for rare starts.
Although a heavily reshuffled Arsenal starting lineup will likely cruise to victory against League One opposition, I believe this match may prove to be a little challenging for the visitors.
Even though I don’t think the hosts will have what it takes to pull off the improbable, I expect them to make life difficult for an Arsenal XI that occasionally played with a false sense of security during the Europa League group stage.
The magic of the FA Cup may be waning, but there’s still room for a major upset.
KICKOFF TIME: Arsenal versus Oxford United match will go down on Monday at 9PM Nigerian time.
