TEAM NEWS
Chris Lowe should be fit after illness, while Jonathan Hogg and Erik Durm are back in full training after injuries. Huddersfield winger Isaac Mbenza could be out for up to six weeks after tearing a calf muscle.
Arsenal’s Henrikh Mkhitaryan, out since December with a foot injury, could return, with Granit Xhaka and Ainsley Maitland-Niles also back in training. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Laurent Koscielny are expected to have recovered from sickness.
MOTD COMMENTATOR’S NOTES
@Guymowbray: Huddersfield goalkeeper Jonas Lossl says “24 or 25 points more” will keep them up. His sums tell us then that Town need to get the same points from 13 games as they’ve managed from their last 43!
New boss Jan Siewert may (have to) say he has “every belief” but privately must be looking at what he needs to change for next season in the Championship.
A long-awaited goal against the only side that hasn’t kept an away clean sheet in the Premier League this season is a start and a must – as is a win for Arsenal, however it happens, in the ‘Herbert Chapman derby‘. Win or bust, you might say.
VIEW FROM THE DUGOUT
Huddersfield Town head coach Jan Siewert: “As long as it’s mathematically possible to stay up, then everything is possible. The way we are working gives me every belief we can do it.
“The most important thing for me is that there’s a lot of players in and around the box.
“The more aggressive you defend, the more aggressive you attack. We have had a problem with scoring and I want that to change.”
Arsenal head coach Unai Emery: “We started very well away, changing also our mentality to get more points away, but now we need to recover this confidence, to recover this performance and the next opportunity is Saturday against Huddersfield.
“We know that defensively we need to do better. We’ve tried playing with three centre-backs and two centre-backs. We’ve won with three centre-backs and two centre-backs.”
LAWRO’S PREDICTION
I just think Unai Emery is really struggling to find a solution to Arsenal’s defensive problem, especially with his side’s injury issues.
Surely Emery must look at the situation and think his side’s best form of defence is attack, especially for this game. If they can find a way of creating a lot of chances, they will win.
Prediction: 0-2
MATCH FACTS
Head-to-head
- Arsenal have won all three Premier League meetings, scoring seven goals without conceding.
- Huddersfield’s last win over Arsenal was back in 1971, when they won 2-1 at the old Leeds Road ground.
- This fixture last season – which Arsenal won 1-0 – was Arsene Wenger’s 1,235th and final game as manager of the Gunners.
Huddersfield Town
- Huddersfield have lost 11 of their past 12 league matches, drawing the other – they have the longest current winless streak in the top four English divisions.
- They have suffered six successive Premier League defeats at home. The Terriers have won just one home league game this season (D2, L10).
- Their tally of 11 points is the third lowest in Premier League history after 25 games.
- They have failed to score in any of their last five matches in all competitions – and have drawn a blank in more than half of their 25 league matches this season.
- Steve Mounie’s goal in the defeat by Burnley on 2 January is their only goal in any competition so far in 2019.
Arsenal
- Arsenal have lost four and drawn one of their last five away matches in the Premier League.
- Their last win away from home came at Bournemouth on 25 November.
- The Gunners are the only side yet to keep a Premier League clean sheet away from home this season.
- They have lost 12 of their past 20 away league games, with their sole clean sheet during this sequence coming in a 1-0 win at Huddersfield last May.
- Seven of Alexandre Lacazette’s nine Premier League goals this season have been winning goals – only Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah, with eight, can boast more.
Source: BBC News
