As we edge closer to a return to Premier League football, Mikel Arteta will be looking to figure out the best way in which to set up his side to chase the European qualification places.
The Gunners currently sit in ninth but are just five points off fifth place [which could secure Champions League football], with a game in hand. Manchester United, Wolves, Sheffield United and Tottenham Hotspur will also be in the race for the remaining European spots which will make Arsenal's challenge that much harder.
In his 15 games in charge, Arteta has overseen a definite improvement in performances at the club. What will be most encouraging, however, is that these performances began transforming into positive results just before the enforced break [five wins from six games].
Here, football.london access which players would fit best in the way Arteta's front three is set up after discussing how the back four and the midfield could be set up best for the Spaniard's demands.
Nicolas Pepe
Although his debut season at Arsenal has not gone as planned, in Pepe's case, it's important to remember how abnormal his first year at the club has been. He has had to play under three head coaches, initially for one who was determined to sign Wilfried Zaha over him, he's been starved of the support of a natural right-back while having to adapt to the Premier League. It hasn't been straightforward for the 24-year-old.
Despite this, like many of his teammates, he really started coming into is own after the winter break in February. In the games against Newcastle, Everton and the home defeat to Olympiacos, he was Arsenal's main threat down the right as he became more clinical in the final third. There were still times where he could be a tad too indecisive but there was clear improvement and his influence on the side grew.
As well as hoping that the enforced break hasn't broken Pepe's momentum, it would have been a great opportunity for Arteta to understand him more to try and make his game less one dimensional, something he admitted he was working on before the break.
"It's part of his development, he needs to open more doors to be more unpredictable for the opponent and give more options as well offensively to us," the Arsenal boss said in March. "Just show him images. Make him defend situations sometimes like he is the full-back and I attack him as a winger.
"You have to feel the moment when the ball is here where you are weak and depending on the step that you take, how that effects the opponent every time, where the spaces are for the strikers, where the strikers want the ball in certain areas, it's a process."
Eddie Nketiah
This is where decisions start to get tricky but similar to the reasoning for Pepe, Nketiah taking this spot is due to how quickly he was able to improve and deliver in the role, along with Arteta's tendencies of using Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Gabriel Martinelli off the left.
As the central striker, Nketiah has come on extremely well since returning to Arsenal. Considering that at Leeds United, despite having a superior goals/minute ratio, Marcelo Bielsa wouldn't start the 20-year-old because he "ran just to try and score." and wasn't as team-orientated, that is far from the truth now.
In Arteta's side, as well as scoring goals, Nketiah had to prove he could do he all-encompassing job Alexandre Lacazette did of pressing, holding the ball up and linking the play. It didn't come instantly but over the weeks, he certainly got the hang of it and was a working part of the Arteta machine.
Lacazette's form was also on an upward trajectory at the time of the break but having proven he can do that job and score when needed, keeping Nketiah there in the first few weeks of football's return wouldn't go amiss.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang
Many Arsenal fans are waiting for Aubameyang to be used as a central striker but Arteta being the fourth head coach [after Arsene Wenger, Unai Emery and Freddie Ljungberg] to regularly play the 30-year-old there, it seems more likely he will stay there when football resumes.
That doesn't have to be a negative, however, as the club captain has taken his game to another level since the Spaniard's arrival. His goal contribution hasn't taken a hit as he's scored seven in 10 games under Arteta [42.5 per cent of Arsenal's Premier League goals overall this season] but what has been interesting to see is how his game has evolved in those games.
Firstly, the types of goals he's scoring is more varied. Of his 61 total goals for the club, just three have been headers, all of which were scored after Arteta's arrival against Chelsea, Newcastle and Everton. It may be a small change but having a striker 6ft2ins striker in and around the box, it'd be a waste not to try and take advantage aerially.
Alongside this, the defensive contributions he makes out wide, whether it be assisting the high press or dropping back to cover for the left-back, he has applied himself admirably and proven many people wrong to believe he is a goalscorer and a goalscorer alone. This seems to have rubbed off on Gabriel Martinelli who was just as good in the role when Aubameyang was suspended in January.
If Aubameyang was to go into the middle then the Brazilian would take the starting spot on the left but as that seems unlikely, this looks like it could be the most potent attack for Arteta to chase those European qualification spots.
