Arsenal will welcome Rapid Vienna to the Emirates this evening for week five of the Europa League group stages.
The Gunners have a 100% record to defend from this season’s competition, but with their qualification already assured after four games, they could well take the opportunity to rest some players.
Mikel Arteta has already been making full use of his squad in the competition, but may now opt to bring some more youngsters into the team.
The visitors come to London with some rocky form, both in the league and in Europe, having failed to win any of their last three domestically, while losing two of their four EL ties thus far also.
They will need to better the results of Molde in order to reach the next stage of the competition, while Arsenal have little to play for.
While this could aid the Austrian Bundesliga side, the Gunners will still be expected to field a team worthy of getting a result.
Arsenal do not come into the tie with positive form in the league either, picking up just one win and one draw from their last six, but that hasn’t affected their European results thus far.
Our team has scored plenty in the group stages thus far, and I don’t expect that to change tonight despite the expected rotation, especially as Arteta will likely want to put a show on for his fans return to the stadium.
I’m going for a nice 3-1 win for our rivals, which will seal our name in as group winners before the final game.
What are your predictions for the match ahead?
Patrick
For no particular reason I’ll go for 2-0
Be nice if they play with the handbrake off tonight
A must win to go through as top of the group.
Mari’s back… ESR and Balogun on the bench 😕