FREDDIE Ljungberg will lead Arsenal into Sunday's clash with Norwich at Carrow Road after the axe finally fell on Unai Emery.
The beleaguered Spaniard came in for a severe and sustained amount of pressure from the Gunners faithful and Thursday nights 2-1 defeat against Eintracht Frankfurt at a near-empty Emirates proved to be the final straw for the Arsenal hierarchy.
The Londoners are now winless in their last seven matches – their last league victory was on the 6th of October at home to Bournemouth- and Arsenal have failed to win 15 of their last 19 English top-flight road trips.
Standing in Arsenal's way of a morale boosting and rare away day success is a Norwich outfit who find themselves in 19th position in the Premier League.
Daniel Farke's free-flowing football won plenty of admirers in the early weeks of the season, however, since stunning champions Man City at this venue back in September, the Yellows were only able to amass a solitary point from the following 21 on offer to them.
However, that alarming sequence of results came to an end last weekend following a fine 2-0 triumph over Everton at Goodison park.
Consequently, the Canaries will go into this battle high in confidence, however, the bookies don't believe that will count for much as a home win is an unfancied 10/3 (BetVictor) and a point apiece is also big odds-against at 16/5 (BetVictor) with the same firm.
Despite being in the midst of a miserable run of form, as well as coming into this encounter off the back off of a difficult few days, Arsenal are odds on favourites at 8/11 (Ladbrokes) to collect a much-needed three points on Sunday afternoon.
Given the capital clubs turbulent week, backing an Arsenal victory in this tussle doesn't appeal to me, however, I am going to revisit a couple of bets that I successfully tipped in the north London sides last outing against Eintracht.
Pierre Emerick Aubameyang took his tally for the season to 10 goals in 16 appearances on Thursday night and I fancy the Arsenal attacker to add to that in East Anglia against a Norwich side who have shipped 15 goals in six league matches at home thus far – an average of 2.5 goals per-game.
The Gabon goal-getter has scored 40 goals in 62 Premier League appearances for the Gunners and I like the look of the 4/5 (UniBet) on offer for Aubameyang to score anytime against Farke's fragile defence.
Indeed, Norwich recorded a rare clean-sheet last weekend, however, Dutch shot-stopper Tim Krul was in irresistible form and a repeat on Sunday looks unlikely when coming up against Arsenal's superior attacking quality.
Therefore, with that in mind, I'm going to back Arsenal to score two or more goals and to take at least five corners – the visitors have taken five or more corners in seven of their last eight league outings , not to mention they have scored at least two goals against the other two sides who currently make up the bottom-three.
However, given Arsenal's well-documented defensive deficiencies, Norwich could well get on the scoresheet on Sunday – the hosts will attack with plenty of spirit and Arsenal have failed to keep a clean-sheet in their last nine attempts.
Therefore, goals could be the way to go at Carrow Road and although there is no value in backing both teams to score at 2/5 (PaddyPower) or over 2.5 match goals for that matter at 4/9 (BetVictor) combining the two aforementioned bets will boost your odds up to 4/6 (Bet 365) – a combination that would have generated profit in all but one Norwich's six homes games this season to date.
This English Premier League match between Norwich and Arsenal will be played on Dec 1, 2019 and kick off at 14:00. Check below for our tipsters best Norwich vs Arsenal prediction. You may also visit our dedicated betting previews section for the most up to date previews.