This is it: the final match Arsenal have before they take on Real Madrid in the UEFA Champions League in what is by far their biggest game of the season so far. The trip to Everton comes at arguably the best possible time with it being an early kick-off on the Saturday lunchtime.
This gives Mikel Arteta as much time as possible to consider changes to his team and enact as much recovery as is possible. Meanwhile, Real Madrid played 120-minutes plus on Tuesday night as they won in extra time against Real Sociedad after an eight-goal thriller in the Bernabeu, and host Valencia at 15:15 local time on the same day the Gunners travel to Merseyside.
The big questions that linger for Arteta have come about after both Gabriel Magalhaes and Jurrien Timber came off with injuries in the 2-1 win over Fulham. While the latter’s is hoped to not be as serious, the Brazilian is almost certainly going to miss some time with a suspected hamstring problem.
The other worry is that even though Bukayo Saka has returned, getting kicked against an Everton side with very little to lose is not exactly ideal. That said, while the title race looks over, winning this match is still very important for Arsenal to keep momentum and perhaps be there in case Liverpool have a major slip in these final nine games.
With that said, football.london has made just three changes from the side that beat the Cottagers in midweek, but as a result, there are structural changes to the side. Even if Timber shakes off this knock, I would not risk him here, nor Ben White who was not ready enough to play against Fulham on Tuesday.
Thomas Partey has played this role many times now and while not ideal does an okay job in the position when he needs to. This means that Jorginho comes into the midfield to cover the moving of Partey to right-back.
In place of Gabriel Magalhaes will be Jakub Kiwior who did indeed come on for him against Fulham. He had a mixed performance with some good things but also a couple of errors – one of which contributed to the late Rodrigo Muniz goal.
Declan Rice, Martin Odegaard, Ethan Nwaneri and Mikel Merino all keep their spots in the side too. The final change for me is Leandro Trossard coming in for Gabriel Martinelli, purely for rotation and rest purposes.
Then later on in the match both Martinelli and Saka can come on to try and build further momentum and importantly be ready for the Madrid clash on Tuesday. Starting Saka here… just is not for me now – I am simply too scared to risk him.
Arsenal changed XI vs Everton: Raya; Partey, Saliba, Kiwior, Lewis-Skelly; Jorginho, Rice, Odegaard; Nwaneri, Merino, Trossard.