ARSENAL continued a good week with a thumping 5-0 win at home to Nottingham Forest.
Gabriel Martinelli was the star of the show with a double while Rob Holding, Joe Willock and Reiss Nelson got on the scoresheet – but there will be concerns over Emile Smith Rowe after he was stretchered off before half time.
Follow all the latest news and gossip from the Emirates right here…
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UNAI EMERY has accepted that some Arsenal fans will not be too happy with Granit Xhaka being named as club captain.
He said: “Granit Xhaka is mature and he has experience. As a coach and as players, we are living under pressure and criticism all the time.
“The most important thing for him is to stand up at each moment and to continue with his quality, behaviour and his commitment.
“In the dressing-room the players voted for him as the first leader. The respect he has inside the group is very, very important.
“I spoke with him and I have told him that now we want to change the opinion that people outside of the dressing-room have of him. That is his challenge.
“I really trust and believe in him. He’s a good man and a good professional.
“Sometimes he makes mistakes but most important is that he learns from them and corrects himself, to use his personality to improve each match and help the team every time.”
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MICHAEL OWEN has predicted that it will be honours even between Man Utd and Arsenal at Old Trafford on Monday.
The former Red Devils striker: “After their loss at West Ham on Sunday, Manchester United have now lost seven of their last 15 games in the Premier League – as many as they had in their previous 40 games in the competition.
“Arsenal continue to frustrate and excite in equal measure, but they came from behind twice to beat Aston Villa on Sunday and they were a man light for the whole of the second period.
“United kept a clean sheet against Leicester City in their last home league game, but I would be surprised if the Gunners did not find the back of David De Gea’s net in what promises to be a fascinating game between two clubs desperate to return to the automatic Champions League places this term.
“Unai Emery will have been delighted by the return from long term injury of Rob Holding and Hector Bellerin in the midweek 5-0 League Cup success over Nottingham Forest.
“Add the impressive belated debut of summer signing Kieran Tierney and two goals from Brazilian teenage striker Gabriel Martinelli, and the suggestion is that the Gunners’ boss is going to have one or two difficult, but welcome, selection decisions to make in the weeks and months to come.”
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MANCHESTER UNITED snubbed the chance to sign Arsenal starlet Gabriel Martinelli – and the decision could come back to haunt them next week.
United had been tracking the highly-rated teenager along with a host of other top clubs in Europe and beat them all to inviting him over for a trial.
Martinelli says he made four trips from his home in Brazil to train with United's youth team – including linking up with Mason Greenwood.
Speaking of United, Martinelli said: “Between 2015 and 2017 I went there four times and trained for about 15 days.
“I asked to take a picture with [Patrice] Evra, [Marouane] Fellaini and other guys.
“Pogba knew I was Brazilian and asked if everything was okay with me and where I was playing. We took a picture together.”
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UNAI EMERY has challenged Granit Xhaka to silence his Arsenal critics after confirming the Swiss international as his first choice skipper.
Xhaka was booed off the Emirates pitch when he was substituted during last week’s 3-2 win against Aston Villa.
But that did not deter his Gunners team-mates from voting him top of their poll to select the five-man captaincy group.
Emery confirmed: “The five captains are number one Xhaka then Aubameyang two, Bellerin, Lacazette and number five is Mesut Ozil.
“I asked all the players to vote because I wanted to know their opinions. I gave them some values and qualities that I was looking for and after that I checked the results.
“In pre-season we had three captains – Mesut, Xhaka and Nacho Monreal. But I wanted five and then Nacho left.
“So I decided to wait until the squad was closed at the beginning of this month because Nacho, Laurent Koscielny and Henrikh Mkhitaryan all left us and I didn’t want a player voting who was not going to be with us for the season.”
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