Arsenal will make the trip to Dundalk this evening for their Europa League clash, and are expected to ring the changes having secure top spot already.
The Gunners have won all five of their EL games so far this season to cement their place as group winners with a match to spare, and this is expected to allow the boss to blood some youngsters into the side.
Mikel Arteta revealed that he had left a number of players ‘at home’ for the clash this evening, increasing the likelihood that we could see a very young and inexperienced side tonight, but the boss didn’t name any names that would be missing.
Had our Under-21 side not been in action on Tuesday, we could well have seen a number of youth products like Miguel Azeez and Ben Cottrell starting tonight, but they both played around 75 minutes of action (according to Football.London), and even a place on the bench could be unlikely.
Arsenal.com has confirmed that Thomas Partey and Gabriel Martinelli are ruled out of the clash, but have no other absentees for the clash.
Predicted XI:
Runarsson
Cedric Chambers Mari Kolasinac
Smith Rowe Nelson AMN
Pepe Balogun Nketiah
While this line-up is pretty much a guessing game, I’m 99% certain that Nketiah, Mari, Smith Rowe and Nelson will be starting.
This team should still have more than enough firepower to keep up our 100% record in the competition thus far, while also giving plenty of minutes to our younger contingent.
Who else do you expect to get a start this evening? Could Azeez or Cottrell still be in contention despite featuring on Tuesday?
Patrick