FC Köln captain Matthias Lehmann admits that Arsenal are big favourites to win Thursday night’s Europa League meeting.

The 34-year-old is hoping for a good match but isn’t expecting anyone to think of Koln as anything other than underdogs, saying: “We really look forward to the challenge, it is independent to the Bundesliga. We want to enjoy the game and show passion in the game,” reports the Evening Standard.

“We are definitely not the favourite, they have a big squad and top players and there will be other top players who start. Arsenal are of course the big favourites but we believe in ourselves, it is a highlight and we will see what their line-up is tomorrow but it doesn’t really matter.”

Arsenal are largely expected to make changes for the opening game of the Europa League campaign, but those coming in are likely to be driven to put in a good performance, in my opinion.

For example, Jack Wilshere hasn’t played a senior game for the Gunners in over a year. I don’t doubt the 25-year-old will be keen to make a good impression in front of the Arsenal fans after his return from a loan spell at Bournemouth.

Then Olivier Giroud, who has only played a quarter of Arsenal’s league minutes so far, has a chance to show that he’s still an important player for the team, and also to score his 100th Arsenal goal.

In my opinion, Wilshere and Giroud will be two of many Arsenal players looking to impress tonight which should see us picking up all three points. The Gunners have also won both home games this season, Koln have lost three of their last four games ahead of tonight’s meeting.