So tonight’s game may mean nothing in the grand scheme of things, but it will give the main Arsenal players the chance to have a rest from our gruelling fixture list, and also to give some of our youngsters a chance to impress Unai Emery in a real matchday atmosphere. And of course it gives Laurent Koscielny and Nacho Monreal a chance to gain a little bit more fitness as well.
Form probably won’t mean much here today, but Qarabag have lost 4 of their 5 Europa League Group games going into tonight and would not expect to put up much of a fight whoever takes the field for the Gunners. Unai Emery made it clear there would be changes made. He told Arsenal.com: “Our first aim in this competition, we have done, which was to be first in the group. But we respect this competition and we respect Qarabag and tomorrow our objective is to win and we are going to give players chances tomorrow to take responsibility, take rhythm and take confidence.
“Also, because we are going to play a lot of matches, in the next 10 days we play four matches – each of them very important – so in the Europa League our first objective we did it, so tomorrow we are going to use some different players with also players coming from the under-23 team and also it is in our planning to start with Laurent Koscielny.”
I doubt that Koss The Boss will be our only first team player as Emery will not want to surrender our unbeaten run so easily, but it is always good to see our up-and-coming young stars in action. I was hoping to see Nketiah, Willock and Smith-Rowe leading the line, but the latest news that Smith-Rowe is injured and will miss tonight’s match. That is a real shame for the lad. But, as they say, the game must go on, so here is my predicted team to face Qarabag…
Cech
Jenkinson Sokratis Koss Monreal
Elneny Guendouzi Maitland-Niles
Mhkitaryan Willock
Nketiah
That should be enough to retain our unbeaten record at least, but I think it will be an exciting game and am going to predict a 4-2 win for the Gunners.
Admin
Not a bad line up Admin, I hope we see AMN… like to see Ozil too! COYG
Ozil & Laca start ?
COYG Let’s finish the group stage in style
Ozil starts Sue really ok then all I can say to whoever plays go enjoy yourself s??
?
We shouldn’t risk Sokratis, what if he picked up an injury. If he plays, and it happens, Emery will curse the decision. I think we’ll see more youngsters than this lineup, or at least I hope we do. I want to see Saka, also I’d like to get a look at a future left back (hopefully not too distant).
Ozil, Saka and Laca all start as does Kos.
And AMN Declan…. should be a good game!
AMN and Nketiah also start
Yes good looking team
Where’s Cech??
Don’t know Sue, Martinez starts then.
6-1 i think we’re due a big one….