Bournemouth are looking threadbare, Pep Guardiola shows the stomach for a fight and Leicester pine for Jamie VardyWith the issues piling up in terms of Arsenal’s defensive composition, it almost passed unnoticed that against Huddersfield they managed a league clean sheet – their first since September. Centre-back concerns felt strongly under the microscope at the end of a week when Rob Holding suffered a cruciate injury, Sokratis Papastathopoulos and Shkodran Mustafi picked up simultaneous suspensions for their yellow card count, and the German skulked off with an injury in any case. Unai Emery has to find, to borrow an old Wengerism, internal solutions for Sunday’s game at Southampton. Stephan Lichtsteiner and Nacho Monreal, career full-backs, could be drafted in to a back three. Laurent Koscielny has not played for seven months and was not deemed fit enough to come on against Huddersfield. Emery will have to make do and mend. Amy Lawrence Related: Gerard Deulofeu: ‘At Barcelona you always have eyes on you … I’m happy at Watford’ Related: Afghan football officials suspended over sexual and physical abuse allegations Continue readingread full article
