The first game of the weekend sees West Bromwich Albion visit the Emirates, a game that last season ended in a 1-1 draw, Jack Wilshere levelling for the hosts in the second half after an unmarked Claudio Yacob headed home Morgan Amalfitano’s cross for the visitors in the first.
To see how Arsenal fans may be thinking about this game, we looked at the Beat Your Manager! Fantasy Football data from this fixture last season, to see what players were picked for the lineup last year and you can check out their Facebook page – https://www.facebook.com/beatyourmanager and follow them on Twitter – https://twitter.com/beatyourmanager
Beat Your Manager! Fantasy Football is a game similar to “Football Manager”, but applied to live football, where you manage your favourite Club and pick lineups, bench, formations and substitutions, all in real-time. When fans play the game, the Beat Your Manager team can measure the popularity of different players, by looking at how frequently they are selected for the starting lineup, substitutes bench or not selected at all.
The app ran for the 2013/4 EPL season and is currently inactive while the developers are creating the revised version – we’ll keep you posted on when it’s going to re-launch.
Formation: A solid 4-4-2 the choice for Arsenal fans
28 per cent of Arsenal fans opted for a solid 4-4-2 formation for this game, with the next-most popular formation a flexible double-pivot 4-2-3-1, selected by 23 per cent of Gunners.
Goalkeeper: Szczęsny between the posts
Wojciech Szczęsny was the fans’ obvious choice in goal; his 96 per cent popularity rating making him jointly Arsenal’s most popular player. Arsene Wenger agreed with the fans and Szczęsny started this game last season. His participation is in slight doubt this year, following a recent rib injury.
Defence: 4th pick for both fans and Wenger now at other clubs
Laurent Koscielny and Per Mertesacker were jointly Arsenal’s most popular defenders, both on 87 per cent with fans, making them 5th and 6th in the popularity stakes for this game.
They were closely followed by Kieran Gibbs (85 per cent), with Bacary Sagna taking up the last spot in the back four, on a still-respectable 62 per cent.
Arsène Wenger agreed with the fans on the three most-popular four defenders, but fielded Carl Jenkinson (85 per cent fan rating) instead of Sagna.
Wenger’s 4th choice Jenkinson is now at West Ham while fan-pick Sagna is now at Manchester City. New boy Mathieu Debuchy is still out with an ankle injury so expect to see Calum Chambers lining up on Sunday to give Wenger additional options in defence.
Midfield: Midfield injury woes the story this year and last
Midfield injuries hit the club hard for this fixture last season, with Abou Diaby, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Santi Cazorla and Theo Walcott all out.
Mesut Özil was Arsenal’s most popular midfielder, his perfect 100 per cent fan rating making him the Club’s most popular player for this game. Aaron Ramsey was close behind Özil on 94 per cent, with goalscorer Wilshere (79 per cent) and Mikel Arteta (64 per cent) next in line.
Wenger agreed with fans on the four most-popular midfielders, but opted to also include Mathieu Flamini (45 per cent fan rating) in a five-man midfield setup.
Diaby will again miss this fixture due to a calf injury, while fan-favourite Özil is out with his knee and goalscoring hero Wilshere will miss the game through an ankle injury.
Forwards: Giroud top of the heap again
Olivier Giroud was Arsenal’s 2nd-most popular player for this match, with a staggering 98 per cent approval rating from Gunners fans
With Lukas Podolski and Yaya Sanogo out injured, Chuba Akpom was chosen to partner the Frenchman upfront, on the recommendation of only 36 per cent of fans, while Wenger chose to go with Giroud in a lone striker role.
We think that we were unlucky vs United last week but having had such a godd result agsinst Dortmund we expect Wenger’s men to build on the last 2 perfomances and for Giroud to lead a rejuvenated Gunners team to a 3-1 win over a decent West Brom side.