Arsenal team vs Liverpool features two surprise additions from Gunners boss Unai Emery

[PHOTO: COURTESY]

Arsenal boss Unai Emery surprisingly named both Hector Bellerin and Sead Kolasinac in his XI to take on Liverpool on Saturday evening .

Both players had been rated as extremely doubtful for the game, with suggestions that Granit Xhaka could be forced into a shift at left-back.

But the Swiss takes his usual place in midfield, behind an attack featuring both Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette playing ahead of Mesut Ozil and Henrikh Mkhitaryan

As Mirror Sport revealed on Saturday , Bernd Leno keeps his place in goal ahead of Petr Cech despite the veteran's return to fitness.

Meanwhile Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp - who is still without the injured midfield duo of Jordan Henderson and Naby Keita - restored Joe Gomez and James Milner to the starting lineup after they missed the win over Cardiff City last weekend., with Andrew Robertson replacing Alberto Moreno.

Dejan Lovren is absent from the 18 with a slight injury.

Emery hailed the German before the game, and claimed that he wants to emulate him.

“I look at Klopp and he smiles every day,” said Arsenal ’s head coach. “I want to smile like him and a smile is better when you win.

“We need to do thing positively, with a smile and then we can enjoy it but also work.

“So I need to learn to smile more. When we win it’s more easy but I need also to smile at other moments.

“But our work is very demanding and every day we need to be very prepared for each match. But then it’s very important also to transmit to the players with a smile.”

 

Arsenal: Leno, Bellerin, Holding, Mustafi, Kolasinac, Torreira Xhaka, Mkhitaryan, Ozil, Aubameyang, Lacazette

Subs: Cech, Ramsey, Lichtsteiner, Maitland-Niles, Iwobi, Welbeck, Smith-Rowe.

Liverpool: Alisson, Alexander-Arnold, Gomez, Van Dijk, Robertson, Fabinho, Milner, Henderson, Salah, Firmino, Mane.

Subs: Sturridge, Moreno, Lallana, Mignolet, Shaqiri, Origi, Matip.