Arsenal and Everton seek to launch European quest at the Emirates

Arsenal and Everton, two teams who are hoping to put together a good run of form in order to stake a claim for a European place next season, face off at the Emirates on Sunday.

In a game dubbed as the ‘Mikel Arteta derby’, the former midfielder for both of the teams and now Arsenal boss will hope his team can leapfrog Everton with a second successive win.

Statistics also seem to bode well for the Gunners. They are unbeaten in their last 23 Premier League home matches against the Toffees.

Additionally, the Londoners have Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to call upon, the Gabonese international now has 30 goals in 37 appearances when playing on a Sunday.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin provides Everton’s threat having scored 11 goals this season.

Team news

Hector Bellerin’s and Sokratis Papastathopoulos’ hopes of playing in the fixtures hang in the balance as they are to be assessed ahead of the clash.

Everton’s Andre Gomes may return after the long lay-off from his injury against Tottenham in November whilst Bernard is also available. Former Gunner Theo Walcott is doubtful for the match.

Gunners boss Mikel Arteta was full of praise for young defender Buyako Saka as the Englishman continues to impress:

“I think he’s really pleased the way he’s handling this situation because there’s a lot of highlights on him at the moment but he’s really humble.

He’s always asking questions, meeting with my assistants and willing to improve. He’s a great kid and he’s very brave. He makes big decisions in the final third, he doesn’t hide and he’s got the vision and the ability to execute in spaces that are really tight which is a big gift.”

Carlo Ancelotti backed Jordan Pickford to recover from his recent bad form:

“Sometimes unfortunately you can have a mistake but after that you need to have the personality to move on quickly and he did. I think also for this reason, not only his technical quality, he is the goalkeeper of the national team.

“Nobody is perfect so we have to accept the mistake of the goalkeeper and also we have to accept that Jordan for us is very important.

“He is a complete goalkeeper because now in the modern football you cannot ask the goalkeeper to only save shots, he has to play with the ball.

“He is one of the players that plays most with the ball so he has to be a complete player.”