Arsenal vs Norwich City. Premier League.
Emirates StadiumAttendance59,989.
Sunday 1 May 2016 07:33, UK
Santi Cazorla and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain could feature as Arsenal host relegation-threatened Norwich on Saturday Night Football hoping to boost their top-four place.
Talk of fan protests after a failed title charge has dominated the build-up to Arsene Wenger's 750th Premier League game and anything less than victory will increase the pressure on the Frenchman.
Third-from-bottom Norwich are staring relegation in the face and are enduring a bad run at the worst possible time. They have struggled to score goals but will take heart from their 1-1 draw against the Gunners at Carrow Road earlier in the season.
Team news
Cazorla and Oxlade-Chamberlain have recovered from respective Achilles and knee injuries, but Wenger may opt not to risk them.
Tomas Rosicky has also recovered from a thigh injury, but he is not expected to feature.
Norwich captain Russell Martin should return to the squad for the trip. The full-back missed City's last outing, the 3-0 home defeat by Sunderland a fortnight ago, due to a virus.
However, fellow defenders Timm Klose and Andre Wisdom have been ruled out of the Canaries' remaining fixtures with knee ligament damage.
Opta stats
Only Sir Alex Ferguson (810) has managed more Premier League games than Arsene Wenger.
Mesut Ozil has now gone eight successive Premier League appearances without an assist, despite having a league-high 18 in total this season.
Ozil has created a league-high 137 goalscoring chances for team-mates this season in the top-flight, more than any other player in a single Premier League campaign since 2003/04.
Olivier Giroud has now gone 14 Premier League games without scoring, his longest goal-drought in the competition.
Arsenal have failed to win seven Premier League games that they have led in at some point this season (D5 L2); their highest tally since 2004-05 (also seven games).
Arsenal have won eight of their last 12 league home games against the Canaries (drawn three, lost one).
Just one of the last 14 league meetings between these two clubs has ended in a Norwich City win. They have lost seven and drawn six against the Gunners in this period.
Arsenal have made the most touches in the opposition box this season (1158), while opponents Norwich City have made the fewest (569).
No team in the Premier League has a lower scoring top scorer than Norwich City this season - Redmond and Mbokani (five goals).
Of players to have had 10+ clear cut chances in the Premier League this season, Norwich striker Cameron Jerome has the worst conversion rate of these chances (16.7%).
Merson's prediction
Norwich will know what they have to do, if Newcastle and Sunderland have got results then they need to get something out of this game.
At the same time Arsenal are fighting for the top four now, they've gone from trying to win the league to fighting for the top four. I expect Arsenal to win this game, I'm one of those people who think they'll keep winning and most of the time they let you down.
But they need to win, because if Manchester United and West Ham win all of a sudden they could be out of the top four.
Paul predicts: Arsenal 3-0 Norwich - Alexis Sanchez to score first
Betting
Sky Bet have made Arsenal the 2/7 favourites with Norwich 9/1 to get a shock away win the Emirates. Soccer Saturday pundits Charlie Nicholas, Phil Thompson and Matt Le Tissier have all tipped Alexis Sanchez to figure for the Gunners with Thommo going for a 3-0 with the Chile striker scoring the first goal at 20/1. Check out the latest odds here.
