Arsenal Vs Brighton: To risk or not to risk?

Arsenal travel to Brighton and Hove Albion on Sunday with a Europa League tie against AC Milan lurking. How risky does Arsene Wenger want to play it?

The Premier League is all but over for Arsenal. After their 3-0 loss to Manchester City on Thursday night, with just ten games remaining, they sat eight points behind Chelsea in fifth and ten points. After Spurs and Liverpool both won on Saturday, the gap to the top four has now extended to 13 points. Even with a game-in-hand, that seems somewhat unassailable.

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Arsene Wenger will still want to win as many Premier League games as possible. The league standing at the end of the year is important, whether it be fifth or sixth, and as a competitive individual, any chance to win will not be snuffed at.

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But there is a growing acceptance that the Europa League is now the Gunners’ most important competition during the remaining months of this campaign. Not only is it now the last chance to win a trophy, and it is a European trophy, something that Wenger has never actually achieved in his 21-year tenure, but it offers Arsenal the chance to secure Champions League football for next season. In a summer of anticipated change, that is crucial.

As such, it is fair to question whether Wenger will begin to make changes to his line-up that reflect the presumed shift in priority. Like Jose Mourinho last season, although that was later in the campaign, will Wenger now look to rest some of his players in the Premier League to ensure that they are fit and firing for the Europa League. The first time we will get an answer to that question is on Sunday when he takes his team to the Amex to face Brighton and Hove Albion, just four days prior to a vital trip to Milan.

There are several key players that are dealing with slight fitness or injury concerns. How Wenger deals with them will tip his hand.

The most obvious is the pairing of Jack Wilshere and Aaron Ramsey. Ramsey has played 180 minutes in a week after being rushed straight into the starting line-up following a groin injury. For a player of his infamous injury vulnerabilities, that is stretching of his durability, and Wenger may subsequently want to rest him. The problem is that the man he would be rested for, Wilshere, was absent from the playing squad on Thursday altogether with an ankle injury and only returned to full training on Saturday. If Wenger has any intentions of playing them against Milan, he may want to rest them on Sunday.

Similarly, Laurent Koscielny is a player who has had lingering troubles with his Achilles. Centre-half is a position that Arsenal are blessed to have ample depth in with Calum Chambers, Rob Holding, and Per Mertesacker all waiting in the wings. Maybe Wenger takes this opportunity to provide Koscielny with some rest while giving some first-team minutes to a more limited participant.

Next: Arsenal Vs Brighton: Predicted starting XI

These are questions that we will have an answer to on Sunday. I do not know what Wenger will do. But if I was him, I would think long and hard about ringing the changes, resting the stars, and focusing on the trip to Milan. That is now the most important game of the season.