Arsenal have won their last nine matches is all competitions, despite not playing particularly well over that stretch. They did have their best performance of the season in their 5-1 defeat of Fulham, so they’ll look to build off of that in this match against Leicester. Their defensive struggles from last season have continued, but they have been able to score enough to mitigate their defensive struggles. They’ll have to create a lot of chances because Leicester City’s attack could trouble their shaky defense.
Leicester have had a very up and down start to the season. They haven’t had any marquee results and they haven’t had any massive letdowns. They have beat the teams they should beat, lost to the teams they’ve faced in the top six and split the two games they faced around teams in similar positions to them, Wolverhampton and Bournemouth. Based on that start, Arsenal could prove to be a bit of a challenge for them, but the Gunners are very beatable this season. The Foxes will look to spring a few counterattacks against them and take all three points against a top-six side for the first time this season.
Team News
Arsenal will be without Petr Cech, Laurent Koscielny and Konstantinos Mavropanos through varying degrees of injury. They could also be without Sokratis Papastathopoulos, as he is a doubt with an ankle injury, according to Physioroom.com. They will have Ainsley Maitland Niles back from injury, so he could make the 18.
Leicester will be without Demarai Gray and Matty James as they both deal with their respective injuries. They will also be without Wes Morgan after he received a red card against Everton.
Key Players
Arsenal: Alexandre Lacazette
Lacazette started the season on the bench, but he has proved his worth and won the role of starting striker for the Gunners. He has four goals and two assists, more goal contributions than any other Arsenal player, in only 537 minutes, or a goal contribution every 89.5 minutes. His success has largely contributed to his teams good run of form. This stretch of matches against lesser opposition could prove to be a huge part of Arsenal’s season and he has been a huge part of their positive results. He’ll look to continue his good form and repeat his success against Leicester, after scoring 94 seconds into this fixture last season.
Leicester City: Jamie Vardy
While his record against Arsenal is not particularly good, Vardy has had a lot of individual success against the Gunners. He has six goals in six appearances against them, though he has only won one of those six meetings. He’ll hope he can continue his individual success in this match and get his second win against Arsenal and his first at the Emirates Stadium on Monday.
Prediction
Arsenal have not been particularly convincing this season, but they have been getting results. They have the talent to beat Leicester and they rarely drop points at home against teams outside of the top six.
