Arsenal vs Newcastle United: Who’s next to get the boot?

Arsenal’s upcoming match against Newcastle United has a lot of buzz because no one knows who Unai Emery may send out there, so who gets the boot?

Arsenal‘s new manager Unai Emery has stated that he is intent on sticking to the plan and not making any rash decisions. He wants to see this all the way through, giving guys as big of a chance as he can, before he makes any switches.

That was fine, but when he swapped in Alexandre Lacazette after previously stating that he wouldn’t, he set the precedent. Fans now know that he has the capacity for change and that change is now going to be expected against Newcastle United.

And so the question is posed – who is the next to get the boot?

By my estimation, there are a multitude of candidates. Mesut Ozil could get moved for Alex Iwobi or Henrikh Mkhitaryan. Lucas Torreira could start over Matteo Guendouzi. Bernd Leno could come in for the flubbing Petr Cech. Stephan Lichtsteiner could come in for Hector Bellerin. These are all the big, obvious ones. More will open up as players return to health, but for now, I’d say that’s a solid crop of of options.

More from Pain in the Arsenal

• 3 standout players from 1-0 victory over Everton
• 3 positives & negatives from Goodison Park victory
• Arsenal vs PSV preview: Prediction, team news & lineups
• 3 talking points from Arsenal’s victory at Goodison Park
• Mikel Arteta provides Gabriel Martinelli injury update after Everton win

So who is the most likely? Well, that requires some more elaboration. If you asked me, if I was the manager, which I am not nor will I ever be, I would swap all of those guys. Mkhitaryan for Ozil, Torreira for Guendouzi, Leno for Cech and Lichtsteiner for Bellerin. But Emery doesn’t want to be so drastic. So, realistically speaking, who will get it?

I’d say the leading candidate is Torreira for Guendouzi, as unfortunate as that is. It is also kind of necessary. Guendouzi has his utilities, but the pairing of Torreira and Xhaka has looked like nothing but brilliance and it needs room to grow.

Plus, Torreira may well be the solution to the defensive problems. We won’t know until we try and I have to imagine that Emery is going to be in the market for improvements however he can find them, even if it’s not a guarantee.

Ozil could also be on the chopping block though, especially if Emery wants to keep things fair. Mkhitaryan was benched last time in favor of Ozil, which I wasn’t particularly fond of, and it may be in the cards to do a bit of a rotation.