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Written by Sam Din
Qualification for the Europa League may have been a realistic goal for Arsenal and Leicester City before the start of the season, but Manchester United’s woes open up a potential path to the Champions League.
With the two clubs tied on points, and United facing European rivals Tottenham later, this lunchtime seems important and difficult to connect with.
Leicester struggled in the early weeks of the season, suffering Wesley Fofana’s loss to a disgraceful interference in a pre-season friendly, winning only two of their first seven matches. Things improved for Brendan Rodgers’ side despite back-to-back wins over United and Brentford, with Leicester’s 3-4-1-2 system enabling them to start any two of Jamie Vardy, Kelechi Iheanacho or Patson Dhaka.
Vardy scored 11 goals in the Premier League against Arsenal, who tried to sign him in 2016, and is expected to partner with Iheanacho. Despite this, Leicester suffer from poor defensiveness, keeping only two clean sheets in all competitions and conceding two or more goals in five of their last seven matches.
Arsenal also recovered from a poor start, with the exception of Chelsea, Liverpool and Man City, the perfect team for the league with four wins and two draws in the last six games. They took a 3-0 lead against Tottenham and Aston Villa in the UAE in two of their best performances in the Arteta era, but they haven’t put in a standout display this season.
They achieved a win at Burnley and largely beat Brighton, while the home draw against Palace was also sub-par. Arsenal’s squad, perhaps due to their absence from the European competition, looks steady and strong with Granit Xhaka the only absentee.
Six backs from Aaron Ramsdale in goal, Takehiro Tomiasu, Ben White, Gabriel, Kieran Tierney and Thomas Partey look like a stone, allowing for fitness, a solid platform to play from.
Full team news on the way soon.
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