Arsenal vs Hull City
Venue: Emirates Stadium
Kick off: 1:30pm
Arsenal will battle Hull City at the Emirates Stadium in the lunch time kickoff with the Gunners looking to arrest their slide after two consecutive losses.
Arsenal find themselves in familiar territory going into the clash against Hull City on Saturday.
It has been a case of déjà-vu as they face the prospect of being left behind in the title race after making a strong start to the season; they suffered a slight dip in December, before returning to second place in January.
Arsene Wenger’s team were eight points behind league leaders Chelsea heading into February, but back-to-back losses against Watford and the Blues in the last two weeks has seen them drop to fourth place, 12 points behind and out of the title race.
It is back to competing for a place in the top four for Wenger’s team.
The Gunners were disappointing against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge and the manager will be hoping to get a positive response from his team and avoid two losses on the spin at home.
Wenger is still short in midfield with injuries to Aaron Ramsey and Santi Cazorla while Granit Xhaka remains suspended.
The team will be boosted by the return of Mohamed Elneny after his participation in the Afcon and the Egyptian is likely to return to the starting XI on Saturday.
Hector Bellerin remains a doubt after he suffered a concussion during the loss to the Blues, but did return to training on Friday.
Hull, on the other hand, have seen an upturn in their form since the arrival of Marco Silva, and will be in buoyant mood following their 2-0 victory over Liverpool last weekend.
They also held Manchester United to 0-0 draw prior to that, and with the current form Arsenal are displaying they are sure to be targeting another major scale.
The Tigers are still in 18th and battling relegation, but four points in their last two games have seen them close the gap on the teams above them and are now only one-point behind Middlesbrough in 15th place.
The Portuguese manager will hope his team can continue their upward trend when they visit the Emirates Stadium today.
Silva will be without key players Michael Dawson and Abel Hernandez, who joined their lengthy injury list after their previous game against Liverpool.
However he will have the services of Ahmed Elmohamady who returned from the Afcon Cup duty and Lazar Markovic, who missed last game as it was against his parent club.
Arsenal Possible XI: Ospina, Gabriel, Koscielny, Mustafi, Monreal, Elneny, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Iwobi, Ozil, Sanchez, Welbeck.
Hull City Possible XI: Jakupovic, Elabdellaoui, Ranocchia, Magure, Robertson, Markovic, N’Diaye, Huddlestone, Grosicki, Evandro, Niasse.