Mikel Arteta shook things up against Chelsea to get Arsenal back on track in the Premier League title race and in doing so may have unlocked a new winning formula.
In the four games prior to Tuesday night's London derby, the Gunners hadn't tasted victory. Three draws against Liverpool, West Ham United and Southampton followed by a 4-1 loss away at Manchester City have caused them to stumble at the worst possible time in the season.
But Arteta's side aren't down and out just yet. If the win over the Blues proved anything it's that the players have not given up hope of being crowned Premier League champions, although beating Newcastle United on Sunday afternoon is key to keeping those hopes alive.
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The fact that Liverpool are the only team to leave St James' Park with all three points this season highlights the size of the task facing Arsenal. Man United went there last month and were convincingly beaten whilst Tottenham Hotspur found themselves 5-0 down after just 20 minutes a couple of weeks ago.
Therefore it's essential Arteta gets his team selection right. However, after being vindicated for ringing the changes in midweek, all of a sudden the Spaniard has a few dilemmas on his hands.
Firstly, dropping Rob Holding and handing £21m January signing Jakub Kiwior a full Premier League debut was such a big call and one that ultimately paid off as the Poland international looked relatively comfortable all night. With that said, the performance does come with the caveat of Chelsea not offering much in attack with an out-of-sorts Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Raheem Sterling fairly ineffective.
Newcastle, on the other hand, will pose questions going forward with both Alexander Isak and Callum Wilson in good goalscoring form so it remains to be seen what Arsenal’s centre-back pairing will be assuming William Saliba isn't available for selection once again.
At the base of an expected midfield, three Thomas Partey will be pushing for an immediate recall and he might be better equipped than Jorginho to deal with a physical battle against Bruno Guimaraes, Joe Willock and Joelinton.
Meanwhile, Gabriel Martinelli could return to the starting lineup after surprisingly making way for Leandro Trossard last time out. The Brazilian, who is Arsenal’s leading scorer this season, has arguably been the best-performing attacker in recent weeks so he certainly has a claim to be resorted.
Outside of those possible alterations that Arteta could be considering, another one to throw into the mix is Kieran Tierney for Oleksandr Zinchenko at left-back. The latter was partially at fault for Noni Madueke's goal on Tuesday night, hasn’t looked assured defensively of late and his perfect replacement is on standby.
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