According to Spanish publication, AS, Atletico Madrid are planning a surprise for the fans at tonight’s match.

Surprise surprise

With everyone expecting Atletico to progress to the final in Lyon later this month, Arsenal have little to lose in a game they already threw away seven days ago.

3,200 Arsenal fans will be in the Wanda Metropolitano on Thursday night hoping that Arsene Wenger can pull one last bit of magic out of his European hat before he heads into the sunset, but everyone connected with the club knows what a huge ask it will be for this side against Diego Simeone’s men at home.

AS write that the Spanish authorities have no idea if the Arsenal fans will arrive looking to make trouble (they won’t) but say that they will be under police surveillance at the game, which, let’s face it, is pretty standard.

“The club does not want to talk much about it, but there will be a surprise for the fans,” they add.

Atletico fans are being urged to arrive early at the stadium and to ensure that they are seated by the time the players emerge on the pitch for their pre-match warm-up.

Click next for Arsenal kit and team news, predicted XI
plus Atletico Madrid team updates…

Arsenal ditch unlucky kit for Atletico game

Arsenal are leaving nothing to chance when they travel to Madrid, ditching their awful blue away kit for a little black number.

The Gunner’s away form this season has been nothing short of horrendous, although they have performed better on the road in the Europa League.

That being said, the blue kit is synonymous with away day humiliation, frustration and embarrassment so the less we wear it in the eyes of fans, the better.

Of course, a kit can do nothing to influence a result, that’s down to the players wearing it and the good news is that Henrikh Mkhitaryan should be one of those players after he returned to training. He picked up an injury scare after his excellent performance against United at the weekend.

Alex Iwobi also returned to training.

Arsenal face a massive task despite the first leg finishing with nothing between the sides.

The archaic away goals rule was first established in the 1965/66 season in order to eliminate tie-breaks or replays. It is claimed that the rule encourages the away team to be more attacking however this is not usually the case as we saw with Atletico at the Grove when they had just 24% possession and six shots.

To be fair, that’s all they really needed.

Arsenal’s goal against Atletico Madrid is the only goal the Spaniards have conceded in their last six games. They have conceded just seven goals in the competition so far and only three at home.

In La Liga, Jan Oblak has 21 clean sheets in 34 games and will return to the Atletico starting lineup after missing the weekend’s game against Alves with a calf problem.

Woop.

Next, Predicted Arsenal XI and team news as 3 return to training

Mkhitaryan and Ospina to start: Predicted XI v Atletico Madrid

by Dan Critchlow

Arsenal face Atletico Madrid in Spain on Thursday, in arguably the biggest game of the season for Arsene Wenger’s side.

Last week, Arsenal couldn’t take advantage of their extra man at home, and ended up with a disappointing 1-1 draw. It means Atletico have the advantage going into the match, as they only need the game to remain scoreless and they’ll be through to the final.

On the other hand, if Arsenal get a single goal, the game swings back in their favour. At that point any draw or win would be enough to at least force extra time, if not qualify in 90 minutes.

The task is therefore simple: Score. It’s better to concede one and score one than doing neither; Arsenal can’t afford to sit back and hope for a goal.

So how will the manager set up his side for the weekend, to try and ensure victory (or a high scoring draw) against one of the toughest defensive opponents in Europe?

Let’s try and work it out…

Next: Team news, line-up and final XI

Team news and predicted line-up

The big news is that Henrikh Mkhitaryan, David Ospina and Alex Iwobi are all back from injury in time for the match. They all picked up knocks against Manchester United over the weekend, but returned to training on Wednesday in time for the game.

Alexandre Lacazette, Aaron Ramsey, Mesut Özil, Jack Wilshere, Laurent Koscielny and Shkodran Mustafi all missed out completely over the weekend. It therefore seems pretty likely we’ll see the six of them return to the starting line-up after their rests.

There were some hoping that after Konstantinos Mavropanos’ fantastic debut on Sunday, he might get a chance at the back. I can’t see it happening though, the match is too important for Wenger to gamble.

Nacho Monreal dropped to the bench for Manchester United, with Sead Kolasinac taking his place. Kolasinac is also back in training after the knock he picked up that game, but Monreal will probably start over him on Thursday.

Granit Xhaka and Hector Bellerin played the full 90 minutes at Old Trafford, but I don’t think that will stop them playing another on Thursday. The pair are too irreplaceable in the current side. Plus Mohamed Elneny is still a strong doubt for the match anyway.

Danny Welbeck started last week, and came off the bench at the weekend. However, Mkhitaryan’s return will probably see the Englishman drop to the bench.

David Ospina should play in goal, but it’s become a near impossible task to guess the goalkeeper in recent weeks. They’re each playing both competitions almost as often as each other.

Next: Final XI

Final XI

Next, Atletico Madrid team news as Arsenal get a massive blow

Massive blow for Arsenal ahead of Atletico match

Arsenal fans across the world will be shattered to know that Jan Oblak has recovered from the calf injury that kept him out of action at the weekend and will be fit to start against the Gunners on Thursday night.

Oblak had an outstanding match at the Grove in the first leg but an ‘overloaded calf’ kept him out of Atletico’s game at Alves, which they won 1-0.

He also missed the training session prior to the game, however reports in Spain believe he will be perfectly fine to start against Arsenal.

Cordoba, 2 May 2018

https://twitter.com/MHaywxrd/status/989901745986920451

Filipe Luis has also returned to training however Juanfran is still absent with a muscle injury, the only absentee from Atletico’s training session on Tuesday.

Sime Vrsaljko will be suspended for the game after his red card in the first leg.