Arsenal play their third pre-season match against Fiorentina on Saturday night, after two wins in their opening two games.

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Tyreece John-Jules and Eddie Nketiah celebrating Nketiah’s winner against Bayern Munich in pre-season (Photo via Arsenal.com)

Arsenal eased to a comfortable 3-0 victory against Colorado Rapids in their opening fixture before scoring late to defeat Bayern Munich 2-1. The youth players have certainly been the stars so far, and they’re likely to get more chances against Fiorentina.

For anyone attending the game in the USA, it kicks off on Saturday at 6pm. However, for those watching on from the UK, it’s on at 11pm.

The match will be televised on Premier Sports, a paid channel showing all of the club’s pre-season games. Let’s have a look at our predicted team.

Predicted Lineup (4-2-3-1)

Martinez; Jenkinson, Chambers, Medley, Kolasinac; Burton, Olayinka; Nelson, John-Jules, Martinelli; Nketiah.

Unai Emery has utilised the same formation in both of Arsenal’s matches so far, so he’ll probably do the same against Fiorentina.

After many of the senior players started on Wednesday night/Thursday morning, the head coach will likely rotate and give youth a chance on this occasion, saving his senior players for starts against Real Madrid.

As a result, the lineup should be pretty similar to the Colorado match, perhaps with the exception of Emi Martinez, Sead Kolasinac and Reiss Nelson getting their first starts of the tour.

That means either Bukayo Saka or Gabriel Martinelli missing out on the starting eleven, and we’ve gone with Saka because he’s more likely to be involved against Real Madrid, and Martinelli didn’t get any minutes against Bayern.

There have been no new injuries in pre-season so far, so there won’t be any enforced changes.

Full Travelling Squad List

  • Goalkeepers: Bernd Leno, Emi Martinez, Matt Macey
  • Defenders: Carl Jenkinson, Calum Chambers, Sokratis Papastathopoulos, Shkodran Mustafi, Zech Medley, Nacho Monreal, Sead Kolasinac, Dominic Thompson
  • Midfielders: Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Joe Willock, Granit Xhaka, Robbie Burton, James Olayinka, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Mesut Özil
  • Wingers/Forwards: Reiss Nelson, Gabriel Martinelli, Bukayo Saka, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Alexandre Lacazette, Eddie Nketiah, Tyreece John-Jules

Rob Holding, Hector Bellerin, Konstantinos Mavropanos and Emile Smith Rowe have all travelled, but they aren’t expected to be fit to play just yet.