In our final game of the inaugural UCL league phase, Arsenal will be in Spain to take on a Girona side that has already been knocked out of the competition. Indeed, our opponents have only managed to win three points in the last seven games of the league phase thus far, which means they won’t even make it to the round of 16 playoffs. In stark contrast, Arsenal will be heading into the game with automatic promotion virtually achieved. Though the Gunners still need at least a point to absolutely ensure qualification, our chances of finishing outside the top eight are near zero. That said, we should be looking to win the game not only to make our qualification certain but also to provide a confidence boost ahead of our gigantic clash with Manchester City at the weekend.
On the eve of the game, training pictures and a video was released to the club’s various social media platforms, and Gooners were quick to spot the return of a duo who missed our win over Wolves at the weekend. Both Mikel Merino and Martin Odegaard were spotted engaged in first-team training, which will be a huge boost to our chances of resting some key players. Furthermore, with Lewis-Skelly having his red card rescinded yesterday, it will give Arteta the freedom to pick any of our options at left-back without having to consider our Premier League fixture at the weekend.
With that said, predicting the lineup Arteta will go with is tough, considering he’ll surely be tempted to give some players a rest. My best guess for his starting lineup is as follows:
David Raya
Jurrien Timber
William Saliba
Jakub Kiwior
Riccardo Calafiori
Jorginho
Mikel Merino
Ethan Nwaneri
Raheem Sterling
Leandro Trossard
Gabriel Martinelli
With this lineup, I still predict a win for the Gunners, but a draw might be on the cards as well. It will be tight, but I’m predicting a comfortable 0-2 win for us in the end.
Leave yours in the comments Gooners!
BENJAMIN KENNETH
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Some might say that this fixture is ideal with city115 coming up.
I hope we have the tie sewn up before half time and then bring on the subs
What we really don’t want is any more injuries and a Mr Oliver performance from the referee!!
But remember Arsenal fans
If a decision goes against us you don’t send messages threatening children or blowing up families
Just a game of football
I really don’t like Michael Oliver as a referee but it is really awful the way some people react and I feel for him and his family – can you imagine that we are at a point where referees need protective duty?
It’s a problem I wrote for years
We have an issue where people seem to think that in the confines of their football bubble they can act how they want
The irony is the people sending those threats probably go to work and also make mistakes
Say it out loud and it’s scary ….
They threatened to kill his 2 year old daughter because …..it was a yellow card
A disgrace Dan, as we all agree on JA and further afield.
I haven’t read one post anywhere that agrees with this / these morons.
Let’s hope the authorities catch, name and shame them.
Let’s hope it doesn’t affect Mr Oliver’s refereeing tonight and it ends up all about him again.
I hope he has the perfect game.
If fans dont abuse him it won’t be about him
Yeah credit to him for not being scared into not doing his job
You mock but I’m sure his family are concerned tonight he doesn’t make a mistake
That’s sad
Fully agree with you Dan. These people who verbally attacked and threatened Michael Oliver’s family are hopefully going to face the consequences. All this for what? A cynical and deliberate foul by Lewis-Skelly was the real cause of the furore and not a single word against his action. Wasn’t he booked for unsportsmanlike behaviour for running on the touchline to pass a message from the coaching staff to
Raya to feign injury? And wasn’t the referee Michael Oliver? A lot of so-called supporters suffer from selective memory.
I’m not mocking, I’m hoping he has a good game and the troubles back home doesnt affect his performance.
The red card incident has been dealt with and that incident is over and done with.
As I say, let’s hope they catch the culprits, name and shame them and then Mr Oliver and his family can move on.
Ken1945,
You say the incident is over. Well the red card part of it might be, but on the BBC Website there’s a report saying that Arsenal have been charged by the FA for not controlling their player’s reaction to said red card.
I’ve just commented on that Derek and I can’t believe that or what else is being alleged.
Please read my comments and see what I mean.
I read your comments Ken1945,
They make for very interesting reading.
Lets see what happens now.
Watch this space as they say. 👍
Has he had any of those perfect games? 🤣
Interesting note, we have not given up a goal in open play yet in this season’s UCL. How far will this steel take us?
I hope MA makes a good decision on who and who not to rest this evening considering city115 is coming up and they seem to have somewhat wrestled their mojo back recently.
Yeah, CFG is going down! 🤣
The higher the finish the less scary the opponent in the next round will be (although by then everyone is scary) and a win guarantees that we don’t have the next round to worry about.
We need to go as far as possible to keep the cash rolling in.
Agreed though, if we could take our usual mass of chances in the first half then we would have a much more comfortable ride and give some people a chance to taste Champions League action.
COYG!!!
What a beautiful ground
Yes I think we need to be thrashed 4 or 5 nil with other results going against so barring this we are through to the next stage.
Yeah
We need to lose
All the clubs on 13 points win and a 7 goal swing between us and Villa
Apparently like a 0.2 change of it happening
Don’t know how they work that out though lol
I think it would be sensible to rest Havertz, Rice and Partey for tonight’s match as they are key to us winning against City on Sunday.Others are equally important but to me the fitness of these three must be preserved for what could well be a physically demanding battle at the weekend.
Any news on us signing a forward yet. Also the mugs who sent those awful messages are not really fans of our club and when found should get a lifetime ban from all games anywhere in the country, send out a message. 3-1 win
Apparently had 60 million bid for Watkins turned down ?
Wherever we truly thought Villa would accept that much I’m not sure ?
Waktins bid rejected will depend on Duran deal i guess. 60m for a 29year old striker might be too high but who will care about this if he is the reason we win the league or CL. We bought auba at 28.5 year for comparison. None of our reported 1st choice target are available also.
Also boyhood Arsenal fan.
I think too low mate
Would deffo make us better
So we do have money and we would rather spend that 70 million on 29-year old Watkins.
Also read MA really would like to sign Nico Williams, a winger whos got 1 goal all season. Oh and hes already on a 200k a week contract.
Are our recruitment completely out of touch? I mean the whole Havertz-saga proved these people have no concept of value or understand the market so I wouldnt trust them at all.
5 years too late for Watkins.We should focus on Mathys Tel from Bayern.
Don’t we just love those Chelsea rejects…😂
I don’t like violence and abuse and all kinds of threats. The problem must be eradicated buy correcting the whole rules of the game. The police yes, they can arrest the criminals but FA must do something about the referees. If you misconduct at a work place, you will be disciplined. If we check properly the issue of Arsenal and the referee in question it seems the FA is not doing enough with the referees misconduct. A referee can easily apologise while the team lost points and to me as a fan the apology means nothing as it will not restart the game. To those who want to kill the man and his family, no, no, no, that is not a way to resolve issues. We must look at other mechanisms to protest. The blame is squarely on the FA
That’s what I been trying to say mate
They were never going to investigate without any evidence that something suspicious has happened.
To them it’s just a reff who made the wrong decision. That happens every week at various grounds and has for decades .
Now they can tell you it’s a wrong decision but much else .
Some Gooners want that but naturally we are going to be biased . That’s why you find outside of Arsenal platforms, most media / pundits are saying it was a terrible decision but fans are overreacting . They say we are overreacting because in reality an official getting a decision wrong happens every season about 20 times .
You say misconduct . Lots of people make mistakes at work that are just mistakes that wouldn’t lead to anything .
I work in a hospital
If I dropped my coffee in the Nurse office that’s a mistake right ?
My nurse couldn’t then say empty your bag , I’m investigating you for drug use .
Some have said you investigate to find things but actually that’s not true .
In most work places there has to be a valid reason to investigate else it’s harassment .
If they said M Oliver your suspended because we are investigating you because you showed a red card he would say , ‘ reffs have for decades been getting things wrong why me now ?’
That’s the point until we can prove corruption/ bias / conspiracy ( any word you want to use ) he should be allowed to go back to work
Look at that other reff
Caught saying what he did about Klopp and Liverpool and allegedly sniffing some powder .
So that is concrete evidence you can take to the authorities and say …look at this
You can’t say can you suspend M Oliver because he’s given us 8 red cards and 2 were wrong
Now I agree with Ken that you could create a zero tolerance
Every Monday morning any reff / VAR found to mess up misses a game but that has to be across the board and consistently done