Swansea City v Arsenal preview: Henrikh Mkhitaryan set for Gunners debut

Henrikh Mkhitaryan is set to make his Arsenal debut in Tuesday night's Premier League clash at Swansea.

The Armenia international joined from Manchester United in exchange for Alexis Sanchez last week and is expected to feature at the Liberty Stadium as Arsene Wenger's side look to pick just their fourth away win of the season.

And Wenger has warned his side they will have to be at their best at the Liberty Stadium, especially after Liverpool's defeat against Swansea on Monday Night Football just over a week ago.

"When you don't win, you are criticised and I think Liverpool tried and what is a good warning for us is that Liverpool are an attacking team - you cannot criticise them for not attacking, they are very dangerous going forward and they didn't manage to score against Swansea," he said.

"That is a good warning for us that we have to produce an absolute total offensive performance."

Watch midweek PL goals on mobile

There's a full midweek schedule - and you can watch goals as they go in on your mobile...

Team news

Swansea will be without midfielder Renato Sanches after he suffered a hamstring injury in the FA Cup fourth round draw at Notts County over the weekend.

Federico Fernandez is set to return, though, after missing the cup game because of a nose injury.

Arsenal are also boosted by the return of Olivier Giroud following a hamstring injury but fellow forward Danny Welbeck (hip) is still missing, as is Santi Cazorla (Achilles).

Opta stats

• Swansea City have lost four of their last five Premier League meetings with Arsenal (W1), including losing each of the last three in a row.
• Carlos Carvalhal will be the seventh different Swansea manager that Wenger has faced in the Premier League, in what is the 14th meeting.
• Arsenal have scored in all six of their away Premier League games against Swansea - only at West Brom (12) and Birmingham (7) do they have a better 100 per cent record.
• Arsenal have only lost one of their last 34 Premier League games against the side starting that day bottom of the table (W27 D6), losing 3-4 at Blackburn in September 2011.
• Swansea have won seven points in their four Premier League games under Carlos Carvalhal (W2 D1 L1), two more than they'd picked up in the 12 games before his appointment (W1 D2 L9).

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Merson's prediction

Arsenal head to Swansea, hoping to succeed where Liverpool failed just over a week ago at the Liberty Stadium. Swansea will play in exactly the same way as they did against Liverpool. They'll defend in numbers but for me, Arsenal have got a bit more guile than Liverpool. They'll create more chances than Liverpool did and that will be the difference.

We could see the debut of Henrikh Mkhitaryan and if it was me, I'd definitely play him. Some people might say he hasn't had much football in recent months but with the way Swansea will set up, Arsenal will have a lot of the ball. They could have up to 70 per cent possession so his creativity will prove useful.

PAUL PREDICTS: 0-2

Fantasy Head to Head

Challenge a mate in our brand new Fantasy Football head-to-head mode. Play for free!