Arsene Wenger has made wholesale changes, six in total, to the Arsenal starting line up for the opening game in the Champions League group stage. Going on form and reputation, tonight´s opponents Dinamo Zagreb are the weakest team in the group and with a massive Premier League clash with Chelsea coming up early on Saturday, you cannot blame him.
The players coming in are no mugs either, with Ospina, Debuchy, Gibbs, Arteta, Giroud and Oxlade-Chamberlain all more or less unlucky that they are not regular first teamers already, so as long as they are properly prepared for this game and the boss gets his tactics right, there is no reason for us not to be heading back to London in a few hours with all three points.
It remains to be seen exactly how the players will line up but this is a fairly educated guess.
Ospina
Debuchy, Gabriel, Koscielny, Gibbs
Arteta, Cazorla
Chamberlain, Ozil. Alexis
Giroud
Subs: Cech, Monreal, Chambers, Flamini, Coquelin, Walcott, Campbell
This is a big game for the club captain Mikel Arteta who needs to show that he can be a viable alternative to the brilliant Francis Coquelin, while both full backs will also want to impress the boss in order to challenge for their places in the first team.
I really do not know a great deal about this Zagreb side other than that they did an invincibles season in the Croatian league last season, so hopefully Arsenal are on the ball from the first whistle. COYG