The trip to Watford tonight is a must-win game for Arsenal. Unfortunately for Unai Emery there are few games remaining in the season that aren’t must-wins.
As such the Arsenal head coach has indicated that, ahead of a trip to Naples 72 hours later, he is prepared to rotate his squad for the trip to Vicarage Road where his side will take on a Watford side buoyed by their remarkable comeback against Wolverhampton Wanderers in the FA Cup semi-final.
“On Monday, I am sure we are going to play different players but [try] to find the same performance,” Emery said after the 2-0 first leg win over Napoli
“Some players after playing with this demanding performance physically, maybe we need something different. Next week it will be the same in Naples.”
Where that rotation can come is where the challenge lies. At centre-back a careless yellow card for Sokratis Papastathopoulos in the 1-0 defeat to Everton has had major consequences. The Greek centre-back will miss Arsenal’s next two games through a suspension for accruing 10 bookings, when his slate would have been wiped clean if he had returned from Goodison Park without a card to his name.
That means that Shkodran Mustafi is set to return to action alongside Laurent Koscielny and Nacho Monreal, with Petr Cech dropping back to the bench for Bernd Leno.
There are no obvious deputies for Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Sead Kolasinac if Emery continues with his preferred back three but infield there could be potential changes. Aaron Ramsey has been battling with thigh issues and could be rested, particularly if Granit Xhaka is available again.
The Switzerland international has had a groin issue since the international break but returned to full training on Wednesday and, though he was not utilized in the win over Napoli, is expected to be available against Watford. A midfield pairing of Xhaka and Lucas Torreira would certainly offer the bite that Arsenal so often lacks in away games, of which they have won just five of 15 in the league this season.
Further forward there are also likely to be changes and it is possible that the first-choice front three of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Alexandre Lacazette and Mesut Ozil will be broken up to give game time to Alex Iwobi and Henrikh Mkhitaryan.