Arsenal are travelling to St. James Park on Saturday afternoon as they take on Newcastle United for their fifth Premier League fixtures of the new season. The Gunners will be looking to make this their second winning of the season after a 3-2 win against Cardiff City before the international break.
Arsenal success against Cardiff was a much needed one for Unai Emery as he continues to re-shape the core of his team at the Emirates Stadium but the former Paris Saint-Germain boss once again has a number of key decisions he needs to make today against the Magpies.
Arsenal performance have been poor in defensive point of view so far this season, with two goals conceded in their win over Cardiff. Although Arsenal will ensure this gets improved soon but the Gunners have hope in the form of Alexandre Lacazette.
The French international has endured a mixed start to his career in London over the past seasons with injuries and the arrival of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang limiting Lacazette chances to impress.
Lacazette’s looked brilliant this season and took his chance in impressive fashion when given his first starting chance against Cardiff prior to the International break.
The north London club looked much more of an attacking team with Lacazette, instead of Aubameyang, leading the attack, but the Gunners boss was predictably coy as he commented on the prospect of both men starting again in his press conference on Friday.
Emery said:
“It’s a process to know the combination on the pitch, with different players but I need and I want to start in the level, 11 players with good performances and also, we need in the balance of players, when the team needs to work in the pitch to help the team to find the win, to stay with the performance.”
Aubameyang and Lacazette linked up in a good manger against Cardiff match and majority of the Gunners supporters will be hoping that is a sign of a promising partnership from the two despite the fact that Arsenal are not capable of playing from the back brilliantly and hitting teams on the counter-attack given the lack of defensive quality in their rank but they have in their team world class strikers who can give them a chance in any game.
Aubameyang posses a trickey pace when playing off the wing while Lacazette is the player with the physical presence in the penalty box, as shown in his goal against Cardiff City.
?? ALEXANDRE LACAZETTE ??
? Angle after angle after angle… pic.twitter.com/cL32ouu7tn
— Arsenal (@Arsenal) September 5, 2018
Newcastle, however, have tasted some success playing Arsenal at home in recent years and this trip at St James’ is a tough task for Emery but he does have weapons of his own and it is about time he deployed his two biggest guns together on a regular basis.