Well it is absolutely imperative that Arsenal continue their winning run and progress to the Quarter finals of the Europa League, but despite the Gunners only managing a draw in Lisbon, I think that Arteta will still make quite a few rotations to the starting line-up.
To be fair we certainly have a hell of a lot of quality on the bench nowadays so we should still have more than enough firepower to get through despite Eddie Nketiah still not being available. As Martin Odegaard said yesterday: “We did some things in the game that we normally don’t, and we know they have quality so they will punish you for any mistakes. We gave away some simple balls and we can’t afford to do that.
“So I think it was a bit too open and we didn’t play with the control that we normally do.
“On the other side, we showed a lot of good things as well, so if we learn from what we did wrong, put that right tonight, then we can fix it here at home.
There is no doubt that Sporting are very quick on the break so we will have to make sure the defence is solid, so I think Saliba and Gabriel will be back after Kiwior was given his debut last week.
Turner was a little criticized after last weeks game but I think he will keep his place, and I think Ben White will be back and Tierney is hopefully recovered from his illness last week.
Odegaard was also sick, but I think he will return alongside Jorginho and maybe Fabio Vieira will be kken to face Sporting too.
Up front, I think maybe Arteta will play Jesus, but he surely can’t play the whole game, and I think Trossard, Nelson and Martinelli will be in the starting XI and Arteta will have options to change things around later on.
As long as we keep tight at the back to start with, I am sure we will make inroads as the game goes on.
So my team prediction is…..
Turner
White, Saliba, Gabriel, Tierney
Odegaard, Jorginho, Vieira
Trossard, Nelson
Martinelli
What team would you choose to make sure we get a result tonight?
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