Charlie Nicholas has predicted a thumping 4-2 win for Arsenal in the north London derby on Sunday.
The Sky Sports pundit said that despite losing to Liverpool last week, he felt the Gunners didn’t get embarrassed.
He did have some advice for Arsenal manager Unai Emery, though, saying that he should play all three of his attackers: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Alexandre Lacazette and Nicolas Pepe.
Writing in his column for Sky Sports, Nicholas said, “Emery does not trust his players enough. He always tends to leave Lacazette out and go with pace. Joe Willock did okay [against Liverpool], but didn’t get on the ball much. You need to go into these games with the best attackers.
“I would always play Lacazette through the middle, Pepe on the right and Aubameyang on the left. Tottenham are nervous at the moment and mistakes always come from these matches.”
The power of three
Jurgen Klopp is blessed with three brilliant attackers – Sadio Mané, Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino – and plays them pretty much every Premier League game. Why wouldn’t you?
The same could be said about Unai Emery’s front three. Before the game against Liverpool last week all the talk was attack v attack, but Emery dropped Lacazette. In fact, Lacazette has only started one game this season and scored in the 2-1 win against Burnley.
It seems odd to leave such a talented attacker on the bench. He got 13 goals and 10 assists in the league last season from 35 appearances and just 27 starts.
However, when you dig into the Premier League stats from last season it seems that Emery hasn’t found a system that works well for Lacazette and Aubameyang.
When both played Arsenal won 10, drew five and lost four games. When Aubameyang played and Lacazette came off the bench, Arsenal won three, drew one and lost four.
When Lacazette played and Aubameyang came off the bench, Arsenal won four, drew one and lost one.
When Aubameyang played and Lacazette was out Arsenal won all three games. The other way round, Arsenal won one and lost one.
Given these stats it’s more than possible that Emery won’t start both players against Tottenham but, like Nicholas, we’d like to see it. Arsenal have Pepe now as well and that could unlock change for the Gunners up top. If Emery needs inspiration, he just needs to look to Liverpool.