Arsenal may be without Sanchez and Lacazette against Manchester United

Arsenal will be without Alexandre Lacazette for their match against Manchester United at the weekend. Lacazette, to be fair to the obsolete Arsene Wenger, does seem to be an excellent striker with the ability to take over from Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil as their star player. But, while they have Ozil and Sanchez in good form, they remain a dangerous side. Which is a problem, because most of United’s defenders are total cack.

HOWEVER: Sanchez is also a doubt for Arsenal, meaning that United once again face one of their rivals when they are vulnerable. Will Jose Mourinho be tempted to follow his standard conservatism in big matches, or instead go for his even bigger love, of getting one over Wenger.

The Mirror believe that the reliably mediocre, quite irritating, but probably OK bloke Olivier Giroud will start in his place. Giroud is an effective target man and will not have too much trouble facing players such as Phil Jones and Chris Smalling.

Which explains why Mourinho must be so relieved by the recent improvement of Victor Lindelof in the last few games. He hasn’t been perfect, but he has been calm and mainly effective. He started poorly when he moved to Benfica, too, which perhaps explains why Mourinho had been reluctant to give him many minutes at the start of the season. He has too keep improving to be worthy of a place in the longer term, mind. Mourinho has found time to praise him after the game against Watford.

According to this, Atletico Madrid forward Antoine Griezmann has asked Barcelona to pay the £87m release clause to get him out of his contract. While Manchester United have an interest in Griezmann, Barcelona are a more attractive side and are - for now - in a much better country than United are. The sensible choice is to join Barcelona.