Arsenal travel to Wembley for the 198th North London derby against Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday knowing that they can inflict more damage on their faltering hosts.
Back-to-back defeats for Spurs mean that Arsenal could close the gap on their local rivals to just one point with victory this weekend, in addition to boosting their own top-four hopes once again.
The Gunners have won four of their last five games across all competitions to move back into the Champions League places, including a 5-1 triumph over Bournemouth on Wednesday evening.
Arsenal have a few walking wounded after the win over Bournemouth, although the knocks picked up by Laurent Koscielny, Sead Kolasinac and Alex Iwobi are not thought to be serious and all three could be in contention this weekend.
Lichtsteiner missed Wednesday’s match with a back injury but should also recover in time for Saturday and is likely to replace surprise midweek inclusion Carl Jenkinson in the starting XI.
Emery eased concerns over the fitness of Granit Xhaka too by revealing that his absence against Bournemouth was down to him being rested, so he is expected to return to the fold for this match alongside Shkodran Mustafi.
There are decisions for Emery to make further forward after Mesut Ozil and Henrikh Mkhitaryan both starred against the Cherries, with both hoping to have done enough to start once again ahead of Iwobi, Denis Suarezand Aaron Ramsey.
If the Spaniard sticks with his 3-4-3 formation then he will also need to decide between Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette to lead the line. Aubameyang started and scored against Bournemouth, but Lacazette also came off the bench to net in that match.
