Arsenal face Sporting Lisbon on the road in today’s Champions League encounter.
The Gunners returned to winning ways last weekend with a 3-0 Premier League win over Nottingham Forest at the Emirates Stadium.
The focus will now shift to the league phase of the Champions League where Arsenal are two points adrift of the automatic last 16 places.
The London giants face a tricky challenge against an in-form Sporting CP outfit, but manager Mikel Arteta will want nothing less than a victory.
Formation: 4-2-3-1
Predicted Line-up:
David Raya has been an undisputed starter in the Premier League and Champions League games. He has been brilliant with spectacular saves and recently kept his first clean sheet since mid-October. The Spaniard is guaranteed to start between the sticks.
In front of him, it should be the same backline from the Forest win. Jurrien Timber and Riccardo Calafiori will start in the right and left-back positions with William Saliba accompanying Gabriel Magalhaes in central defence as usual.
Jorginho had an eventful opening half on Saturday. The Italian impressed with his distribution, but was substituted at the break due to a booking. He could drop to the bench tonight alongside Mikel Merino.
Merino caught the eye with his late surging runs into the box. The duo are likely to be replaced with Thomas Partey and Declan Rice respectively. Rice was an unused substitute last weekend. He has been nursing a broken toe in recent weeks.
Further forward, we anticipate two changes. Gabriel Jesus lacked any attacking threat in the box. The £46 million-rated star was good with his link-up play, but never looked like finding the back of the net for Arsenal. He was also guilty of losing possession on the counter-attack.
Leandro Trossard fared better with his dribbling and chance creation from the left wing, but both are likely to be dropped. Kai Havertz and Gabriel Martinelli are expected to return to the XI, having played no part in the weekend’s victory over Nuno Espirito Santo’s side.
The rest of the attack should stay unchanged. Bukayo Saka was sensational from the right wing on Saturday with a goal and an assist. Martin Odegaard was brilliant with his link-up play with Saka and should have got more than an assist for his splendid showing.
How Arsenal could line up vs Sporting CP
Stats from Transfermarkt.com
