With Brentford visiting Emirates Stadium and Manchester City their opponent five days later, Arsenal faces a pivotal week in their Premier League campaign. On their home turf this season, Mikel Arteta’s team is unbeaten in the league, and six points from their upcoming two games would be a huge boost for the Gunners in their title rivalry with City.
James Tarkowski’s game-winning goal gave Sean Dyche his first victory as Everton manager, and it marked only the second time this season that Arsenal lost a Premier League match. The only other league setback for the Gunners came at the hands of Manchester United, and Arteta’s team went on an eight-game winning streak in all competitions after that.
As Arteta struggled with a lack of depth in all three positions, Leandro Trossard, Jorginho, and Jakub Kiwior all joined the team in the January transfer window to assist bolster the roster.
Given the resources the Spaniard has, Arteta broke a persistent pattern in the match against Everton by making a number of unexpected replacements that may now become standard. Gabriel Martinelli was taken off the field before the hour mark for the first time this season after starting all 20 league games. Thomas Partey followed suit.
Jorginho made his debut for Arsenal while Trossard made his third outing since joining from Brighton. While there are still a number of injury concerns and challenges in north London, injuries in the two positions that the duo play appear to have a smaller influence on the first team now that they have been added.
Reiss Nelson has resumed training and is now aiming for a return to the matchday squad while Mohamed Elneny appears to be out for an extended period of time. Rests for key players who have played a lot of minutes this season may be planned with a crucial matchup against their title rivals coming up.
Potential Arsenal starting lineup and the substitutes’ bench Arsenal vs Brentford
Starting XI: Ramsdale; Tomiyasu, Saliba, Gabriel, Tierney; Partey, Xhaka; Saka, Odegaard, Trossard; Nketiah
Substitutes Bench: Turner, Zinchenko, Holding, Kiwior, Martinelli, Jorginho, Vieira, Nelson
Absent Players: Elneny, Jesus, Smith Rowe