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Kaya Kaynak

Arsenal line ups vs Fulham as Tomiyasu starts, Saka is dropped, Fabio Vieira inclusion

Arsenal will look to maintain their 100% start to the season as they take on Fulham in the Premier League at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday.

The Gunners are the only team in the Premier League to have won all their games so far after victories against Crystal Palace, Leicester and Bournemouth, and with victory in the London derby they will look to continue their best start to a season since 2004.

However, it is far from a done deal that Mikel Arteta 's side will claim all three points. Fulham are yet to lose a game this season and sprung an upset on the opening weekend of the season by holding Liverpool to a draw.

READ MORE: Every word Mikel Arteta said on Nicolas Pepe's exit, transfer plans and Hector Bellerin's future

"A really tough match," Arteta said when asked what he was expecting this weekend. "They come from a really good run in the Championship last year, they did extremely well, they haven’t lost a game yet in the Premier League and they played against three difficult opponents and it will be a very difficult game."

The Gunners boss has a full squad minus Reiss Nelson to choose from, but that itself provides plenty of headaches as he tries to decide who will be the best team to claim victory in this London derby. Luckily for him, football.london 's Arsenal writers are on hand to decide who they think should play this weekend.

Tashan Deniran-Alleyne - Arsenal Writer

The Arsenal team pretty much picks itself at the moment and after starting the new season with three wins in a row, it would be a surprise if Mikel Arteta opts to freshen things up against Fulham even with games against Aston Villa and Manchester United on the horizon.

There's an argument to bring Kieran Tierney or Takehiro Tomiyasu back into the fold as they would be better equipped than Oleksandr Zinchenko or Ben White to deal with the aerial threat of Aleksandar Mitrovic as we've seen how the Serbian striker likes to isolate full-backs at the far post. But as the home team and with the onus on us to stamp our authority on proceedings, I'd only make one change.

At some point in the next week, Bukayo Saka must be rested. I do think his 'slow' start to the season is largely down to fatigue accumulated from playing so many games for club and country over the past year, and Saturday is perhaps the best time to pull him out of the starting XI with Emile Smith Rowe taking his place.

For me, the midfield trio should remain unchanged from a week ago whilst Gabriel Jesus and Gabriel Martinelli can continue in attack with Eddie Nketiah, Albert Sambi Lokonga and Fabio Vieira offering solutions to change or see out the game if needed in the second half.

Deniran-Alleyne's Arsenal XI vs Fulham: Ramsdale; Tomiyasu, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko; Thomas, Odegaard, Xhaka; Smith Rowe, G. Jesus, Martinelli

Kaya Kaynak - Chief Arsenal correspondent

After a nice start to the season, this is the week where things start to get slightly tougher for Arsenal. They have what is, on paper, a favourable home game against Fulham on Saturday to kick off a week that sees them face big-spending Aston Villa and a Manchester United team who cannot be written off no matter what state they're in.

With that in mind, I'd look to make a few changes just to freshen things up from what was an impressive performance at Bournemouth.

The first of these would be at right back where I would look to bring Takehiro Tomiyasu in for Ben White just in order to deal with the physical threat that Aleksandr Mitrovic provides. The Japan international is a monster in the air and would probably be the best way to neutralise Fulham's most dangerous offensive asset.

I would leave Aaron Ramsdale in goal and keep the rest of the defence as it was last week. The midfield stays the same at the start too but I would look to give Fabio Vieira his first competitive minutes in an Arsenal shirt. A home game against a newly promoted side, what better opportunity could there be?

Up front I don't really think Gabriel Martinelli or Gabriel Jesus can be dropped right now. Bukayo Saka is just about more of a candidate to get the axe, but I'd keep him in the team for this one and then look to rotate a bit more against Villa on Wednesday.

Kaynak's Arsenal XI vs Fulham: Ramsdale; Tomiyasu, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko; Partey, Xhaka, Odegaard; Saka, Jesus, Martinelli.

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