Aaron Ramsey and Olivier Giroud will miss out again for Arsenal in the Premier League match against Swansea City. The Gunners will want to make it six wins in a row by beating Bob Bradley's side.
Swansea have been a bit of a bogey team for Arsenal in the recent past and while Arsenal have played some outstanding football since their stuttering start to the season, Arsene Wenger will be wary of their opponents.
Therefore, another quick start and assured overall performance will be demanded on Saturday. Ramsey and Giroud, however, will not be present to help Arsenal do that, with Per Mertesacker, Carl Jenkinson, who played in the U-23 game on Friday, and Danny Welbeck also absentees.
Alexis Sanchez is likely to continue in the centre-forward role for Arsenal, with the Chile international thriving in that position this season. With Alex Iwobi, Theo Walcott and Mesut Ozil for company, the attack looks really good at the moment, but they will be up against a stubborn Swansea defence, who will, no doubt, stay compact and force the Gunners to find different ways of opening them up.
Francis Coquelin is back from injury for Arsenal, and it remains to be seen if Wenger brings the midfielder back to his starting XI at the expense of Granit Xhaka. Wenger likes the Coquelin-Santi Cazorla combination, but Xhaka has impressed every time he has got an opportunity, so it will not be an easy decision to make.
The back four seems to be an automatic choice at the moment for Wenger, with Shkodran Mustafi forming such an impressive partnership with Laurent Koscielny in the centre of the defence. Nacho Monreal and Hector Bellerin will be the fullbacks, and their roles, going forward, will be crucial to provide the width that Arsenal sometimes lack. Unless there is a late injury, Petr Cech will be in goal.
Jefferson Montero, who gave Calum Chambers a torrid time not too long ago, is unlikely to feature with a calf injury and so too Fernando Llorente, who has a knee problem. Nathan Dyer has been ruled out.
Bradley, who took over as the manager during the international weekend, after Francesco Guidolin was sacked, would have now assessed his players in training and will probably know which of them will fit into his system right away and who needs more time. Based on that, the American is likely to make his decisions on the starting XI.
Confirmed lineups: Arsenal: Cech; Bellerin, Mustafi, Koscielny, Monreal; Xhaka, Cazorla; Walcott, Ozil, Iwobi; Sanchez.
Swansea City: Fabianski; Naughton, Fernandez, Amat, Taylor; Cork, Britton, Fer; Barrow, Sigurdsson, Routledge.
