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Arsenal take on London rivals Fulham at the Emirates Stadium in the first round of games to be played in the New Year in the Premier League. The Gunners will be looking to extend their supremacy over their cross-city challengers to whom they last lost six years ago.
Unai Emery's men look the better side on paper but there is no taking a new-look Fulham side lightly who appear rejuvenated under former Chelsea and Leicester City boss Claudio Ranieri.
The Red team from London will be keen on getting on a roll after they stumbled a little bit in their 5-1 loss to Liverpool. Their defense was humiliated and taken to the cleaners by Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino in the aforementioned game. As always, their defense looks a bit shaky with a majority of defensive players out through injury. Laurent Koscielny is likely to replace Sokratis in the center-back position on Tuesday.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has been in fine nick but could hardly get any touches on the ball against Liverpool. He will be hoping to get back on the goalscoring charts against Fulham on Tuesday. Supporting him will be Alexandre Lacazette, Alex Iwobi and the enigmatic Mesut Ozil.
Fulham come into this game on the back of a 1-0 victory over Huddersfield Town at Craven Cottage. After Aboubakar Kamara missed a penalty, it was left to Serbian center-forward Aleksandar Mitrovic to win the game for the hosts. Claudio Ranieri has instilled a sense of freedom and enjoyment within the side and allowed them to play with complete freedom.
Arsenal loanee Calum Chambers, who has played at midfield this season, has pulled the strings from the center of the park but will miss this game due to Premier League regulations. Although this match looks like a walk in the park for the Gunners, they will not be complacent as Fulham can be quite dangerous when attacking off set-pieces.
Predicted lineups:
Arsenal:
Goalkeeper: Bernd Leno.
Defenders: Sead Kolasinac, Laurent Koscielny, Shkodran Mustafi, Stephan Lichtsteiner.
Midfielders: Granit Xhaka, Lucas Torreira, Mesut Ozil, Alex Iwobi.
Attackers: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Alexandre Lacazette.
Fulham:
Goalkeeper: Sergio Rico.
Defenders: Joe Bryan, Tim Ream, Alfie Mawson, Denis Odoi, Cyrus Christie.
Midfielders: Ibrahima Cisse, Jean Michael Seri.
Attackers: Tom Cairney, Aleksandar Mitrovic, Luciano Dario Vietto.
