After the calamitous performance in Belarus last week, Unai Emery needs to make a few changes if he wants to turn things around and progress to the last-16 of the Europa League.
For a start, Alexandre Lacazette won’t be available for the clash, after picking up a red card. However, there are other areas of the pitch where Emery needs to make changes, as well as a couple of players returning after injury.
Although Arsenal have a Premier League game against Southampton at the weekend, they can’t let that affect the team selection for this match. It’s now or never for Emery’s side in the Europa League, and he has to go as strong as he can and get a result or it’s over.
Let’s have a look at our predicted lineup for the match.
Goalkeeper and Defence
Petr Cech will presumably keep his place in the team after last week, as he didn’t make any major mistakes and his distribution was good. It seems he’s going to play in the Europa League games while Bernd Leno takes the Premier League matches, at least for now.
In front of him, Arsenal need to switch to a back four, because the back three added nothing against BATE Borisov. There was no benefit defensively, as the team conceded chances as regularly as usual, and in possession, the extra centre-back did nothing except slow things down.
Unfortunately, Hector Bellerin’s absence at right-back means the problems in that position are set to go on. Ainsley Maitland-Niles’ isn’t really a full-back, and Stephan Lichtsteiner is on a terrible run of form. Nonetheless, for the good of the team Maitland-Niles will just have to try and hold things down for a game.
Sokratis Papastathopoulos is back from injury, so he should start alongside Laurent Koscielny, as those two are certainly Arsenal’s best performing centre-backs this season. Then Sead Kolasinac will presumably keep his place on the left.
Click ‘Next’ for Midfield, Forwards and the full Predicted Starting XI
Midfield
Matteo Guendouzi had a poor game in Belarus, and Arsenal always seem to perform best with Granit Xhaka and Lucas Torreira in a pairing, so those two should start on Thursday.
Mohamed Elneny is also available as an option, but he doesn’t seem to be in favour with Emery at the moment. Aaron Ramsey faces a race to get fit in time for the game, so he probably won’t start.
The third midfield starter has to be Mesut Özil. Whatever is going on behind the scenes, Emery will really cause major damage to his reputation if he leaves the German out and Arsenal perform as terribly as they did against BATE in the first leg.
The team clearly need creativity, and Özil has a goal and an assist in 141 Europa League minutes this campaign. It’s time to give the 30-year-old a chance to prove his worth.
Click ‘Next’ for Forwards and the full Predicted Starting XI
Forwards
There’s only really one candidate to start up front for Arsenal, after Alexandre Lacazette’s red card, and that’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. Eddie Nketiah is also available, and he scored and assisted against Tottenham Hotspur for the u23s on Friday, but Emery is unlikely to gamble on youth in the starting lineup for this fixture.
Out wide, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Alex Iwobi seem pretty likely to keep their places. Denis Suarez is another option, but again, this isn’t really the time for a full debut. Arsenal need to stick with a system they’re familiar with and players they know work together.
Having said that, Bukayo Saka and Xavier Amaechi should both be in with a shot at making the bench. The two academy stars are performing excellently game after game for the youth teams, and Saka made a great first impression in Arsenal’s last Europa League home game. Either would be a worthy wide addition to the bench.
Click ‘Next’ for the full Predicted Starting XI
Predicted Starting XI
