Ahead of Arsenal's Premier League showdown with Everton at the Emirates on Saturday afternoon, Sports Mole site coordinator Ben Knapton addresses a key concern around Declan Rice and Bruno Guimaraes and also responds to accusations that the holders are "boring" to watch.

Arsenal vs. Everton: Why Gunners shouldn't care about boring label

I genuinely do get it [the boring label]. The Man City teams that used to win the league would go gung-ho on the attacking front, the 2019-20 Liverpool team was absolutely ruthless in attack.

This is an Arsenal team that won the league largely based on its defence rather than its attack. But if being boring wins you the Premier League, I'll take that every single day of the week.

I remember periods where Arsenal would sometimes blow opponents away, during recent times and during the Arsene Wenger era. It was entertaining, and we would score so many goals and go for the jugular against those teams. But what did we win?

Similar to the 22-23 and 23-24 seasons where we scored so many goals and set club goalscoring records in the Premier League. But what did we win?Just one Community Shield.

Those two seasons really seemed to scar Arteta. At the time we still had Gabriel, Saliba and Ben White in defence, but we were scoring so many goals while also being prone to the odd lapse in concentration.

Over the last two seasons, Arteta has really gone from chaos to control. In the 24-25 season, there was a bit of an anomaly when that shift from chaos to control happened and Arsenal fell way off the pace set by that Liverpool team under Arne Slot.

But now players are a year older and a year wiser. There were still so many players in their early to mid-twenties back in those 23-24 seasons.

Now they're in their mid to late twenties and early thirties, really in their prime, much more experienced and used to Arteta's system.

When they get into that horseshoe shape, it is not exciting at all. Against Nottingham Forest it felt like the same old thing, but like against Lille, if you can completely wear teams down by passing the ball about, there has to be that one breakthrough moment.

Maybe you get lucky with a Noni Madueke deflected strike. Maybe it's individual class like Timber's goal against Lille. Arsenal are eventually going to wear teams down.

They'll have the ball so much that there's little chance of them conceding. And even if they turn the ball over, you've got to get past Konsa, Gabriel and David Raya, who made another ridiculous save against Bayern the other night.

Even looking at the goalscoring stats, Arsenal have scored two or more goals in five of their last seven games in all competitions. In this game against Everton, they may have won 4-0 or 5-0 back in the day, but that's certainly not going to happen.

Arsenal have Bruno Guimaraes, Declan Rice 'concern' for Everton clash

I think there'll be three or four changes from Arteta. He's been turning to the bench with very good effect in recent weeks, especially against Bayern Munich after the Saka injury. That's a big blow.

It's now time for Eze and Madueke to step up from the first whistle. Noni did it off the bench against Forest after a poor Eze display. Eze did it off the bench at the Allianz Arena, so now they both need to do it from the start.

I also think Victor Gyokeres will come in over Kai Havertz, who was quite disappointing against Bayern Munich. When Gyokeres uses his body well, he's a proper asset to the team. That layoff for Declan Rice to get the second goal against Bayern was gorgeous.

But when he doesn't use his body well, it's appalling. I remember his first two months at Arsenal when he didn't seem to win a single duel.

But when he can use his body like he did against Atletico last year and against Bayern the other night, he's a proper asset. After a couple of poor Havertz displays, I wouldn't be surprised if Gyokeres comes in for this one.

One thing that concerns me is the midfield pairing of Guimaraes and Declan Rice.

I know each has assisted the other for a goal this season, but in terms of an actual midfield partnership, I'm not convinced it works. Against Bayern, Rice was monstrous but Guimaraes was exposed quite a lot when Bayern broke forward.

Both Rice and Guimaraes love to venture forward. If you put Lewis-Skelly in there, he's not so forward-thinking. He can get forward and contribute, but compared to Guimaraes and Rice, Lewis-Skelly is more than happy to sit in, win fouls and do the dirty work.

I'd be starting Lewis-Skelly in this game, and maybe dropping Guimaraes or Rice on a rotational basis, with Lewis-Skelly as a midfield constant to give defensive cover.

For this weekend, bring in Gyokeres, bring in Lewis-Skelly, and probably Ben White for Jurrien Timber too if both are fit. Either way, I think Arsenal win, keep a clean sheet and stay at least within three points of Man City at the top of the table.