Middlesbrough v Arsenal: Team news, predictions & odds

The game kicks off at 2000 BST at the Riverside Stadium, live on Sky Sports 1.

Middlesbrough v Arsenal: Our prediction 

1pt Arsenal to win and under 2.5 total goals at 16/5 - time for a move in the right direction against goal-shy opponents

Our David John writes... Arsene Wenger must air his dirty laundry once again on a national stage with the Gunners wrapping up the Easter weekend live on Sky one week removed from perhaps the nadir of an already pretty awful season.

An abject performance in the 3-0 defeat at Crystal Palace suggests the players have just about run up the white flag under the Frenchman with Theo Walcott admitting Palace “wanted it more”.

Naughty boy Walcott had his wrist slapped later in the week for his comments but Wenger’s hold on this group is seemingly slipping by the day as contract wrangles continue with star players and even the most loyal fans now turn their backs on him as well. 

The whole sorry state of affairs has become more than just one of England’s top teams looking woefully out of form and any motivation that remains could be potentially sucked from them a little further if other results go against them and they occupy seventh spot, 10 points adrift of the top four, by kick-off. 

The walls may be crumbling around Wenger but he still believes his players have the character to clamber back into the Champions League places, however their fortitude will be tested in the north east by a team fighting for their own future in the top flight. 

Arsenal are rather uneasy odds-on favourites but there remains that tantalising prospect they put all other issues to one side for a fleeting moment and turn it on by scoring four or five.

Team-mates continue to look for the mercurial Alexis Sanchez to be the catalyst and in the Chilean’s defence, he still seems keen to fight for the cause with some industrious displays of late – although his frustrations with those around him are increasingly apparent. 

Whether he wants to remain at the Emirates for a reported £300k per week or moves on, Sanchez must show he still has a love for the game and if it starts here, I guarantee Walcott, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and co will follow. 

Arsenal winning this game must begin with something more fundamental though and keeping a clean sheet is a solid foundation.

The potential return of Petr Cech in goal and Laurent Koscielny will be a big boost to that end bearing in mind they face the lowest scorers in the division. 

Temporary Boro boss Steve Agnew has been thrust into the role and now tried various combinations up front in a bid to address an issue that has seen them score just once at home in their last four Premier League games.

Gaston Ramirez adds some creative input with Adama Traore on his comeback from an ankle issue but the pair blow hot and cold while perming any two from Alvaro Negredo, Rudy Gestede and Cristhian Stuani to lead the line has delivered extremely limited results to date.

Organisation at the back is this team’s strength – they have conceded just two fewer than Monday’s rivals this season and a whopping 30 fewer than Swansea, who sit one place above them in the table at the time of writing.

The departed Aitor Karanka’s cautious approach leaves them staring over the precipice and an immediate return to the Championship but seven games remain on the slate – more than enough to dig themselves out of trouble if they can stage a rally under Agnew.

How the lie of the land looks in the standings come Monday evening will have an influence on the approach of both these teams but fiddling around trying not to lose does neither any good. 

The hosts really don’t have the firepower on recent evidence to trouble even this current Arsenal side and following last week’s debacle, it is genuinely unthinkable a collection of highly-paid professional sportsmen and their coaching staff can sink much lower.

Boro will have their moments and try and make things as uncomfortable as possible but the Gunners are fancied to head back to the capital with positive outcome at last and I fancy a routine victory.

Prediction: Middlesbrough 0-2 Arsenal

Middlesbrough v Arsenal: Team news

Interim head coach Steve Agnew has been handed a major boost ahead of Middlesbrough's Premier League clash with Arsenal on Monday.

Defender George Friend, who has made only one appearance since the end of January after suffering a calf injury, and midfielder Gaston Ramirez (ankle), are both fit and ready to return.

That means only Calum Chambers, who is ineligible under the terms of his loan deal from the Gunners, will be missing as relegation-threatened Boro look for a first win in 15 league outings. 

Arsenal could welcome back captain Laurent Koscielny and first-choice goalkeeper Petr Cech.

Koscielny has sat out the last two games after injuring his Achilles against Manchester City while Cech has been sidelined with a calf problem.

Manager Arsene Wenger rates their chances of being involved at the Riverside as 80 per cent, but Lucas Perez (thigh) and David Ospina (back) remain absent.

Middlesbrough: Valdes, Guzan, Barragan, Friend, Gibson, Espinosa, Ayala, Husband, Fry, De Roon, Clayton, Forshaw, Leadbitter, Guedioura, Downing, Stuani, Traore, Fischer, Ramirez, Negredo, Gestede, Bamford. 

Arsenal (from): Cech, Martinez, Macey, Bellerin, Holding, Gabriel, Koscielny, Mertesacker, Mustafi, Monreal, Gibbs, Maitland-Niles, Coquelin, Xhaka, Ramsey, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Ozil, Walcott, Reine-Adelaide, Iwobi, Sanchez, Giroud, Welbeck.

Middlesbrough v Arsenal: Manager quotes

Steve Agnew (Middlesbrough)

On Victor Valdes: "You don't win and achieve like Victor Valdes has done in his career without being focused every day. Whatever we are doing he's fully focused, he is 100 per cent committed and he's a top, top professional." 

On Ben Gibson: "Ben has had a terrific season and he's got a fantastic future in front of him. He's had a recent call-up to the England squad and we are all so proud of him.

"But he's a Middlesbrough player, he's a Middlesbrough boy and Ben is focused on only one thing, and that's the game against Arsenal on Monday night." 

Arsene Wenger (Arsenal)

On his future and relationship with owner Stan Kroenke: "What is happening at board level is not down to me. I focus on what is down to me, the performance of the team and what the fans are interested in is the performance of the team.

"I believe our relationship has always been the same and that has not changed."

Asked if anything had changed with regards to his future: "Nothing." 

On Arsenal players publicly admitting that Crystal Palace "wanted it more" following Monday's defeat at Selhurst Park: "It is not acceptable. But the players were conscious of that when we were in the decisive duels. That's what I said straight after the game. We were beaten, and you have to face reality and respond."

Asked whether his players would give a positive response, he said: "You can never guarantee that.

"In football, you have to accept that the risk is part of it and that you can win, lose or draw. What you want - the real response - is to play with total commitment and with total belief in what we do.

"We might get there (into the top four), we might not get there, but the only thing to get there is to believe we can do it and that's what we have to focus on. It's not the fear to fail, it's the desire to make it and that's the only chance we have to make it."

On reports that Alexis Sanchez has been offered a contract worth £300,000 a week had been offered to a player whose deal expires in 2018: "First of all, I cannot confirm that we have offered that. Secondly, we will do as always. We have to consider our financial potential to sustain the wages for the whole squad.

"What is for sure is that what is paid per week today was 20 years ago per year. Will that continue to go up? I don't know. I'm always tempted to say no but I was wrong on that front.

"I'm very happy (Sanchez has been nominated) because it rewards a very strong season if you look at his numbers. His goalscoring record is good, his assists are good and I believe that the combination of goalscoring and assists always shows the quality of a player."

Middlesbrough v Arsenal: Opta facts

Middlesbrough are unbeaten in their last four Premier League home games against Arsenal (W2 D2), although this will be the first meeting at the Riverside since December 2008. 

Arsenal’s 7-0 win over Middlesbrough in January 2006 is their joint-largest margin of victory in Premier League history (alongside 7-0 v Everton in May 2005).  

Middlesbrough have conceded more goals against Arsenal than against any other opponent in the Premier League (62 in 29 games). 

Prior to the 0-0 draw in this season’s reverse fixture, Arsenal had scored in 16 consecutive Premier League games against them, winning 10 of those (D4 L2). 

Olivier Giroud is the only current member of the Arsenal squad to have netted against Middlesbrough in any competition (two in the FA Cup). 

Arsenal have lost four successive Premier League away games for the first time in Arsene Wenger’s reign at the club, with the previous run of four league away defeats in a row coming back in April 1995.  

The Gunners haven’t lost five successive top-flight away games since December 26th 1984. The only Arsenal players to have appeared in the Premier League this season and be alive when this happened were Petr Cech (2 years, 220 days old) and Santi Cazorla (13 days old). 

Over each team’s last eight Premier League games, only West Ham (5), Sunderland (4) and Middlesbrough (3) have earned fewer points than Arsenal (7). 

Middlesbrough are the least threatening side in front of goal in the Premier League this season; scoring just 22 goals and attempting only 78 shots on target in 31 games (less than three a match on average). 

Arsenal are 14 points behind Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League table coming in to this matchday; the first time they've been 14+ points behind them in the league table since May 5th 1963 (also 14).     

Middlesbrough v Arsenal: Sky Bet odds

Arsenal are Sky Bet’s 8/15 favourites for the victory despite their wretched form, with Middlesbrough 5/1 while a draw is priced at 16/5. The Gunners drifted from 3/1 to 6/1 to secure a top-four finish following last Monday’s loss, while only Sunderland are shorter odds than Steve Agnew’s side to face the drop. Alexis Sanchez is the 100/30 favourite in the first goalscorer betting while Alvaro Negredo is rated the hosts’ main threat at 8/1 to net first. 

Click for Sky Bet's Middlesbrough v Arsenal odds!