Arsene Wenger retains his faith in Theo Walcott as the attacker starts up front for Arsenal's visit to Watford this afternoon.

Walcott has been in good form for club and country recently, his last Arsenal goal coming in the 3-2 defeat to Olympiacos, while Alexis Sanchez also starts for the Gunners.

Laurent Koscielny has recovered from a hamstring injury to start, while Mikel Arteta also returns to the bench after a recent dead leg.

Ikechi Anya and Allan Nyom start for Watford after they failed to feature for their respective countries through injury recently, but Jose Manuel Jurado, Joel Ekstrand and Tommie Hoban all remain unavailable.

Arsenal have won all four of their Premier League meetings with Watford, although the last one came on Boxing Day in 2006, while Odion Ighalo has scored Watford's last five Premier League goals. He now has 21 goals in 26 league games in 2015, more than any other player in the top four divisions.

Watford: Gomes; Nyom, Prodl, Deeney, Cathcart; Ake, Anya, Abdi, Watson, Capoue; Ighalo
Subs: Gilmartin, Britos, Behrami, Paredes, Ibarbo, Holebas, Berghuis

Arsenal: Cech; Bellerin, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Monreal; Coquelin, Ramsey; Cazorla, Ozil, Alexis; Walcott
Subs: Macey, Gibbs, Chambers, Debuchy, Arteta, Giroud, Oxlade-Chamberlain

Listen to Sports Mole's preview of the game below, and follow the live commentary here.