Arsenal expected starting XI v Newcastle: Big calls to make on injured Ben White and Gabriel

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta goes into tonight’s must-win clash against Newcastle with some huge selection calls to make in defence.

The Gunners have now slipped behind Spurs in the race for the Champions League, with their game in hand coming against Eddie Howe’s in-form Magpies.

Arsenal have to win if they’re to go into the final day of the season with Champion League qualification in their own hands.

The match comes with Arteta being hit by a crisis at the back.

During Tottenham’s north London derby demolition, Rob Holding was sent off - so misses the match through suspension - while his centre back colleague Gabriel Magalhães limped off with an injury.

Ben White - who was on the bench at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium - was not deemed fit enough to come on, and Arteta said both would face late fitness tests.

On Saturday, the Arsenal manager said: “We will know probably more tomorrow [Sunday], so we wanted to extend this period as much as possible to understand how they are recovering, how they are feeling, assess them and tomorrow probably we will know more about how they are.

“I could [give you an estimate], but I will probably be telling you whatever.

“Tomorrow will be the day we will have better answers, probably not the answers that we want until matchday [Monday], but hopefully better answers.”

The pair were not seen in Arsenal’s training pictures from Sunday.

And Arteta hinted at some of his players moving to positions they were not used to.

He added: “We will have to modify certain positions to try to make it work, because we don’t have more defenders.

“Even though we have academy players, they haven’t experienced a lot of those positions because they’re not specified central defenders, so it’s something that we will try to find a way.”

So with Arteta’s comments, here is our expected line up for Arsenal to take on Newcastle.