Arsenal vs Napoli predicted XI: Coping without Granit Xhaka

Arsenal need to make a major statement against Napoli, but they’re going to be short-handed, so here’s how they should line up to better their odds.

It may be hard to do, but going into this match against Napoli, we should have a lot of confidence, if solely because the match is at home, and thus the good Arsenal will come out. The Arsenal that handily put away Manchester United and numerous other foes in the confines of the Emirates is one of the best teams in the world, looking at the points.

And this first leg is at home, meaning that the Gunners will have a chance to establish a necessarily huge lead in order to ensure that the dreaded trip to Italy doesn’t end in complete disaster. Which even a huge lead doesn’t guarantee, but it certainly doesn’t hurt.

It’s right to be nervous for this one, but more of the nerves should come from the potential absences of Granit Xhaka and Laurent Koscielny, not the caliber of the opposition. This team is missing their leader in defense and their leader in the midfield and that is definitely going to be a problem, but this is all about scoring a crap ton of goals, and there aren’t many hindrances there beyond the missing links deeper in the pitch.

Since we are at home, it’s likely that Unai Emery sticks with the three at the back formation, likely emphasizing the attack with a 3-5-2 set-up, even if the defense and midfield is going to be a huge question mark.

In case it needs to be said again, the point is to score a lot of goals. If you keep scoring, the opposition can’t score, and thus, we have our objective clearly set in front of us.

All that said, let’s move into the starting XI. I am going in with the assumption that Koscielny and Xhaka both won’t be available (I have a palpitation every time I say it).

We start in goal.

Keeper

Is it bad that I’m nervous that Petr Cech will be starting, or is it good because Bernd Leno is starting to make such a difference that I don’t want to see him taken out? For the sake of staying positive, let’s call it good.

Anyway, hopefully Cech can find his form, because we need that clean sheet, don’t we?

Moving on to the back three.