Unai Emery’s men travel to Azerbaijan for the second game of their Europa League campaign on Thursday, with Qarabag FK standing between them and three points.

Arsenal picked up a 4-2 win against FC Vorskla in the first game of the group stages, which left the Gunners top of Group E on goals scored. Qarabag, meanwhile, are bottom of the group, having lost 2-0 to Sporting Lisbon.

Emery named a strong squad for that first game at the Emirates, but with the length of the trip to Azerbaijan and another Premier League game on Sunday, he’s likely to leave one or two extra players at home on this occasion.

Let’s have a look at our predictions to start Thursday’s match:

Goalkeeper and Defence

Bernd Leno was thrust into the action against Watford and we expect him to keep his place on Thursday. Emi Martinez is the alternative option, with Petr Cech injured. However, since Leno now needs to become Arsenal’s first choice in Cech’s absence, Emery will probably use this opportunity to get him a little more up to speed.

Sead Kolasinac should finally get a chance to return to the Arsenal team after injury. He’s been slowly working his way back to full fitness, and made a couple of appearances on the bench in the past week, without getting onto the pitch so far. Now seems like the right time to work him back into the side though, as Nacho Monreal needs a rest.

Stephan Lichtsteiner will replace Hector Bellerin on the other side, as he has been in the Europa League and League Cup so far.

At centre-back, Sokratis Papastathopoulos should make his return from injury, and if we’re picking on form then it has to be Rob Holding alongside him.

Either Holding or Shkodran Mustafi has to take their place in the team again because Arsenal only have three fit centre-backs. Laurent Koscielny and Konstantinos Mavropanos are injured, and Julio Pleguezuelo played for the u23s on Monday.

Midfield

Fresh from a rest at the weekend and his first assist for Arsenal last Wednesday, Matteo Guendouzi should reclaim his place in the side on Thursday. Mohamed Elneny will likely start alongside him, giving Granit Xhaka, Aaron Ramsey and Lucas Torreira a rest.

Emile Smith Rowe and Joe Willock both sat out of Arsenal’s u23 game on Monday, so they’re rumoured to be preparing to play a part in the match. There’s only space in the side for one, and most likely that’ll be Smith Rowe, after his appearances against Vorskla and Brentford.

However, he picked up a minor injury in the Brentford game, so it depends whether he’s made a full recovery.

Forwards

Danny Welbeck is in top form at the moment for Arsenal. He has three goals in his only two starts of the season, and another goal in his 54 minutes of Premier League substitute appearances so far. At the weekend, he came on and won the ball back for Arsenal’s second goal. He should be a nailed on starter on Thursday.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan won’t travel with the side, after deciding it’s not safe for him with the political situation between his country Armenia and Azerbaijan.

You wouldn’t expect Mesut Özil, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang or Alexandre Lacazette to start either. Then again, after Aubameyang started the last Europa League match, who knows?

Alex Iwobi should return to the starting XI after another impressive cameo against Watford. Eddie Nketiah didn’t play for the u23s on Monday, so he’s available to start this match.

After Unai Emery didn’t give the young striker a chance against Brentford, it’s hard to know if he will this time either. Given Mkhitaryan’s absence though, it’s either Nketiah or one of the senior trio mentioned above. We’re going to optimistically predict the 19-year-old getting a game.

Click ‘Next’ for our full predicted starting XI

Predicted XI