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Norwich City take on Arsenal in one of the early kickoffs on Boxing Day in the Premier League at Carrow Road. The two sides have been in polar opposite form, and thus, the away side come in as the favorites to win.
Dean Smith has not been able to work his magic just yet at Norwich and has struggled to get the results going his way. They have lost their last three games and will be desperate to put on a big performance today.
Christoph Zimmermann, Mathias Normann, Grant Hanley, Andrew Omobamidele, and Milot Rashica are out for Norwich today. Pierre Lees-Melou, Lukas Rupp, Josh Sargent, and Christos Tzolis have recovered from COVID but are doubtful today.
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On the other hand, Arsenal have won their last three matches in convincing style and will be full of confidence. They defeated Norwich City earlier this season at the Emirates Stadium and will be looking for a bigger win today.
Sead Kolasinac is the only one ruled out for Arsenal, but Calum Chambers and Pablo Mari have recently tested positive for COVID. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang's internal suspension status is still unknown.
Here are the predicted XIs for the two sides today:
Norwich City: Tim Krul, Max Aarons, Ozan Kabak, Ben Gibson, Brandon Williams, Billy Gilmour, Jacob Lungi Sørensen, Kenny McLean, Przemysław Płacheta, Teemu Pukki, Todd Cantwell
Arsenal: Aaron Ramsdale, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Ben White, Gabriel Magalhães, Kieran Tierney, Bukayo Saka, Thomas Partey, Granit Xhaka, Gabriel Martinelli, Martin Ødegaard, Alexandre Lacazette
Managers talk ahead of Norwich City vs Arsenal
Dean Smith has revealed they have fresh COVID cases in the Norwich City camp, but the final squad is still unknown as they have to wait for the PCR tests. He said:
"We've had some fresh cases, but we've got others coming back from previous cases as well so I think it is pretty similar to a lot of other clubs at the moment.
"I'm not sure yet because we have to have a PCR within 48 hours of the game and that is our last point really to find out who is going to be missing and who is going to be available. We'll train today and train tomorrow morning and see what numbers we've got."
Mikel Arteta has no injury issues after the Sunderland win and will be looking to put out his best players today.
"We didn't pick up any injuries yesterday, obviously before the game we lost Calum with Covid. We are tested every day and we will see how it goes, touch wood."
Norwich City last defeated Arsenal in 2012, when they won 1-0 at Carrow Road.
