Arsenal are back in Europa League action tonight as they host Slavia Prague in the last eight of the competition.
Do not take Slavia lightly; they’ve excelled to get to this point, and have dumped out Leicester City and Rangers in the last two rounds.
Mikel Arteta’s men need to take this game very seriously, and must be much better than they were in the 3-0 defeat to Liverpool last weekend.
Arteta has some decisions to make ahead of tonight’s game, and here’s our best stab at a predicted lineup for the Gunners…
Bernd Leno may have his critics, but he is by far Arsenal’s best goalkeeper and, barring injury or illness, should start between the sticks.
Calum Chambers struggled against Liverpool, but with Hector Bellerin out of favour, we’re backing Chambers to keep his place at right back.
With David Luiz out, we’re going with Rob Holding and Gabriel Magalhaes as the centre back pairing, whilst Cedric Soares gets the nod at left back with Kieran Tierney out of action.
Granit Xhaka was in training on Wednesday and should subsequently feature, returning to partner Thomas Partey in the heart of midfield.
Martin Odegaard is struggling with a knock and may miss out, with Emile Smith Rowe surely primed to play as the number 10 if the Norwegian misses out.
Arsenal fans may not like this, but we can absolutely see Willian starting the game in from the left flank, with Nicolas Pepe given the start on the right as Bukayo Saka is only just coming back from injury.
Then comes the striking conundrum. Right now, it has to be Alexandre Lacazette that starts ahead of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in attack, with the Frenchman quite simply in much better form.
In this situation, we would back the likes of Mat Ryan, Karl Hein, Bellerin, Pablo Mari, Dani Ceballos, Mohamed Elneny, Saka, Gabriel Martinelli and Aubameyang to be among the substitutes.
Arsenal predicted starting XI: Leno; Chambers, Holding, Gabriel, Cedric; Partey, Xhaka; Pepe, Smith-Rowe, Willian; Aubameyang.
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