Arsenal can salvage a miserable season on Saturday by beating Chelsea in the FA Cup final and securing a spot in Europe for next term.
The Gunners’ finished eighth in the table this season—their worst league position since 1995.
Arteta’s men face another historic FA Cup side in Chelsea at Wembley on Saturday.
The two clubs share a staggering 21 victories in this competition and have met in the final twice before.
Arsenal head into the clash having endured a raft of injuries and absentees since Project Restart began in June.
But they will hope to get one over London rivals Chelsea and win a fourth FA Cup in seven years.
Defence
Bernd Leno’s injury means Emiliano Martinez will continue between the sticks for Arsenal. The goalkeeper managed just four clean sheets in 11 appearances this summer, but successfully shut out Manchester City in the FA Cup semi-final.
Shkodran Mustafi’s hamstring injury means Arteta will likely play three at the back, which worked well against City. However, that likely means dropping Ainsley Maitland-Niles and keeping a back three of Dan Holding, David Luiz and Kieran Tierney.
Midfield
Ainsley Maitland-Niles got the nod in midfield during the semi-final at Wembley and Arteta appears keen to stick with the youngster, who also dropped into defence for the Watford win last time out.
Were Maitland-Niles to start here it may well be in place of Hector Bellerin, seeing as Bukayo Saka has impressed down the left of late. Bellerin is already a worry for the game with a calf injury. Dani Ceballos and Granit Xhaka should stick in the centre of midfield.
Matteo Guendouzi and Mesut Ozil are not expected to be included.
Xhaka will be tasked with stopping the Chelsea supply lines reaching either Olivier Giroud or Tammy Abraham. Ceballos, whose only experience of an elite-level final was 10 minutes in the second leg of Real Madrid’s 5-1 spanking of Barcelona in the 2017 Supercopa de Espana, managed just two Premier League assists this season, but should start.
Attack
When fit the Arsenal attack takes care of itself. Between them, Nicolas Pepe, Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang have scored 47 goals.
Lacazette will lead the line but it is Aubameyang coming off the wing that will likely scare Chelsea the most. The Gabon international scored both goals in the 2-0 semi-final win over City and has 27 for the season.
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Don’t be surprised if Eddie Nketiah gets a run-out at Wembley, having scored four goals since his return from Leeds United on loan.
Arsenal predicted XI: Martinez; Holding, Luiz, Tierney; Maitland-Niles, Ceballos, Xhaka, Saka; Pepe, Lacazette, Aubameyang
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