Manchester United will face Arsene Wenger as the Arsenal manager one final time on Sunday as we meet at Old Trafford.
The Gunners boss revealed earlier this week that it will be his final season at the Emirates after more than two decades at the club where he rivaled Sir Alex Ferguson’s side for a couple of seasons.
Arsenal currently find themselves down in sixth position and out of contention for a top four this finish. With the second leg of their Europa League semi-final tie at Atletico Madrid to come on Sunday we can expect the Gunners boss to rest a few of his key players.
Here’s the team I think Jose Mourinho will send out:
Goalkeeper: David de Gea
The Spaniard is closing in on the Premier League Golden Glove award but you can expect David de Gea to up against the likes of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Henrikh Mkhitaryan this weekend as they are ineligible to face the Spanish side midweek, though the latter is a doubt through injury.
Defence: Antonio Valencia, Eric Bailly, Chris Smalling, Ashley Young
Eric Bailly missed our FA Cup semi-final win over Tottenham Hotspur due to illness but the boss confirmed in his press conference earlier today that Sergio Romero is our only absentee this weekend. I think we’ll see Bailly back into the starting lineup to partner Chris Smalling in the middle whilst Antonio Valencia and Ashley Young maintain their roles at full-back.
Midfield: Nemanja Matic, Ander Herrera, Paul Pogba
Ander Herrera was the man of the match at Wembley Stadium last weekend and deserves to keep his place in the starting lineup. More importantly so as Jose Mourinho has decisions to make on how many central midfielders he wants to bring in over the summer. Nemanja Matic will protect the back four against Arsenal’s attack whilst hopefully we’ll see a good performance from Paul Pogba going forward ourselves.
Attack: Jesse Lingard, Romelu Lukaku, Alexis Sanchez
Alexis Sanchez gets to face his former club for the first time since leaving the Emirates for us in January and the Chilean heads into the game in excellent form. The same cannot be said of striker Romelu Lukaku but I think the boss will continue to go with the Belgian over Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial. Jesse Lingard will get the nod ahead of Juan Mata down the right because of his off the ball work.
Here’s our team on paper:
