Arsenal make the long trip to Belarus today to take on Bate Borisov in today’s Europa League group match.
The Gunners come into the game with impressive form, but having left a large number of first-team stars in England, they may struggle tonight.
Arsene Wenger is believed to have opted to leave behind as many as nine regular starters, while others are also ruled out through injury.
Alex Iwobi, Danny Welbeck, Calum Chambers, Santi Cazorla and Francis Coquelin are all sidelined, while Hector Bellerin, Nacho Monreal, Laurent Koscielny, Sead Kolasinac, Granit Xhaka, Aaron Ramsey, Mesut Ozil, Alexis Sanchez and Alexandre Lacazette are all said to have been left in England.
We appear to be prioritising our Premier League fixtures over the away matches in the Europa, and while winning all our home matches should put us comfortably through to the next stage, our fringe players will not be going out tonight without the intention of three points.
Predicted XI:
Ospina
Holding Mertesacker Mustafi
Debuchy Elneny Wilshere Maitland-Niles
Walcott Nelson
Giroud
The match-up will kick off at 6PM GMT, and this side should have more than enough ability and experience to come away from Belarus with all three points.
Jack Wilshere will most likely be happy to come out of the match unscathed, but beyond that he should be looking to use this match as a platform to build his season around.
Nelson will hopefully get his chance to impress in his more natural attacking position also, which he will hopefully relish, and I hope the powerful atmosphere in Borisov doesn’t overcome the youngster.
I’m going with a hard-fought 2-1 win, with Walcott adding to his goal from the League Cup.
Does this line-up have enough guile to come away from Belarus with the win? Would Wenger be happy with a draw? Can we afford to take such liberties at this early stage of the group phase?
Pat J
i think it will be a draw 2-2
with giroud and wilshere to score
it will be a hard game
Bate 2 – Arsenal 1…. Bate to score first…
There’s 5 teams miles better than us in the league
So we haven’t a prayer .
We have to focus on Europa league
My worry …Tottenham’s group looks like Dortmund are dropping into Europa
As are one of Roma or athletico
So really we are in no man’s land .
United end up winning Europa with dead teams as opponents
We though….who fancies the fa cup??
yes your right about the five teams now but one or two of them don’t have depth in their squad so lets see in February what happens like it always happened to us when we were in the CL
We will just have way too much for them, 3-0 victory I think!
Yes from day one this season
Wenger has been playing
the “A” team in the league
and playing the “B” and “C”
players in the cups.
The ultimate goal is 4th place in the league
which guarantees his 8 mill salary next season.
For now the league is the priority so he plays the “A” players in the PL games.
However next year if it looks like Arsenal will not make 4th place in the EPL
Wenger will have no hesitation in switching the the “A” team to the Europa League.
After all when 8 mill is at stake one needs to be flexible.
Admin
add Belerein in your team (who i think don’t need the rest) then your line-up can then have a real fast game which will not suite Bata,
I hope we win. Not sure about the other team, so we’ll have to go for it. I just hope Arsene doesnt regret leaving all those players at home!!
Your probable lineup suggests how weak we are as a team. This is meant to be our back up team I’m assuming. Compare it with the top 4 second tier team and you’ll begin to understand the depth at which Mr Wenger has run down Arsenal! Why is he doing this to our beloved Arsenal?
ask that to Stan its his club, company and and money, lets not forget he might not be good for arsenal but his one hell of a business man, i’m sure he must have a reason to run down maybe his getting ready to sell?
President Trump has urged his top overseas business owners to bring back the money to USA with tax breaks, perfect time to sell we better all check to see if we have lose coins back of the sofa 🙂
just read that Arsenal turn over/income has risen over 400 Million a year that’s a considerable jump
Risen TO 400m…..
eaked Arsenal financial report appears to show football turnover tops £400million for first time
Profit of £44.8m includes reduced wage bill as failure to make the Champions League means lower bonuses
Ospina
Holding Mertesacker Mustafi
Bellarin Elneny Wilshere Maitland-Niles
Walcott Iwobi
Giroud
yes that looks good to me
According to admin, Iwobi is injured and Bellarin has not travelled.
Nice looking little stadium Bate have.
Cost less than Ozil and holds only 13,000.
Bate are very strong are home and on a solid undefeated run.
Last team to beat Bate on their turf?
Barca in the 2015/2016 cl, 0-2.
This team only beat Dundalk of the Irish league 1-0 at home, and lost to them 3-0 in Ireland.
We should be looking for a big scoreline in our favour, 0-4+ to Arsenal, we should bury teams like this, but knowing us it’ll be a win by 1 or 2 goals.
GK – Ospina
RWB – Debuchy
CB – Mustafi
CB – Mertesaker
CB – Holding
LWB – Maitland-Niles
CM – Willock
CM – Wilshere
ATM – Nelson
ATM – Walcott
ST – Giroud
With this lineup is not going to be easy out there in Belarus.
But we can do it.
COYG#
so many missing links in this Arsenal selection for the BATE Borisov match. God help us