On Saturday, Arsenal play their first match of their 2018/19 pre-season schedule, against Boreham Wood, so let’s take a look at the likely starting eleven for the clash.

Preview

Speaking to the media in a press conference on Thursday, Unai Emery confirmed the squad would be a mix of young players and those who didn’t travel to the World Cup in Russia. Those who did take part in the tournament will be returning over the coming weeks.

Presumably, based on previous pre-seasons, Emery will start with a strong team, before making a host of changes at half-time to give the remainder of the squad a chance to gain some fitness and prove themselves.

Of course, we don’t know anything for sure, because this is all new territory under the Spanish head coach. That’s part of what makes it exciting.

Nonetheless, for the sake of our prediction we’ll assume Emery plays a fairly similar formation to the one Arsenal finished last season with.

Click ‘next’ for a breakdown of how each position is looking ahead of the match

Goalkeeper

Hopefully we’ll get a look at Bernd Leno for the first time at some stage, but I’d expect Petr Cech to start the match. Leno only joined the pre-season preparations this week, whilst Cech has been back since the start of the month.

If Leno doesn’t play any part in the match, Emiliano Martinez or Matt Macey will get a chance, as they’ve been back for even longer than Cech has.

Defence

Arsenal are fortunate enough to have almost all of their first-team defenders back in training already. The only exceptions are Laurent Koscielny (injured), Nacho Monreal and Stephan Lichtsteiner (on holiday after the World Cup).

Hector Bellerin should start on the right, with new signing Sokratis Papastathopoulos and Shkodran Mustafi in the middle. Sead Kolasinac is the only option on the left, without delving into the academy.

Then in the second half we should see Calum Chambers, Rob Holding, Konstantinos Mavropanos and Carl Jenkinson, one of whom will have to fill in on the left.

Midfield

The midfield options are quite a bit lighter, with Lucas Torreira, Mohamed Elneny and Granit Xhaka on holiday, as well as Jack Wilshere and Santi Cazorla leaving for new clubs.

If Arsenal are to play a midfield three, there are only really three options: Aaron Ramsey, Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Joe Willock. Matteo Guendouzi is an alternative if he’s ready, but he only joined the team in mid-week. Also, Emile Smith Rowe has been training with the first team, so he might get on for some minutes.

Forwards

This is another area where Arsenal are almost already at full strength. First-team forwards Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang are all available, and I’d expect them to start.

There are plenty of other options though, including Jeff Reine-Adelaide, Lucas Perez and Chuba Akpom returning from loan. Then Eddie Nketiah and Reiss Nelson from the academy, who have been in first-team training too.

Click ‘next’ for our final predicted starting line-up

Starting line-up

Once again, this isn’t easy to call, given this is the first predicted XI we’ve ever done with a new head coach in charge. With that in mind, here’s our best guess.

Starting XI (4-3-3): Cech; Bellerin, Sokratis, Mustafi, Kolasinac; Maitland-Niles, Willock, Ramsey; Mkhitaryan, Aubameyang, Lacazette