Arsenal will clash heads with Qarabag on Thursday night hoping to build on their opening night victory against Vorskla in the UEFA Europa League. The Gunners made a slow start to this campaign but has since recovered in grand fashion and have won seven successive matches across all competitions.
Most of Unai Emery’s first-team players are slowly but surely coming back to form which would give them immense confidence going into this European clash at Azerbaijan. The North Londoners are expected to rest some of their stars which will give a few of their fringe players an opportunity to impress under Emery.
The Gunners will line up in a 4-2-3-1 formation with Bernd Leno set to start in place of the injured Petr Cech.
4-2-3-1 Arsenal Predicted Lineup To Face Qarabag
Defence
Bernd Leno is in line to get another start in Unai Emery’s first-team as Petr Cech recovers from the injury that he sustained against Watford on Saturday. The centre-back duo of Rob Holding and Sokratis Papastathopoulos is expected to start at the heart of the Gunners defence for this upcoming clash in Europe.
Nacho Monreal might resume his defensive responsibilities at left-back while Stephan Lichtsteiner looks to use his experience and guile down the right flank.
Midfield
Unai Emery might start with the midfield pair of Matteo Guendouzi and Mohamed Elneny who would both be expected to put in a dominant shift at the middle of the park.
The in-form trio of Alex Iwobi, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Danny Welbeck would be unleashed ahead of them as part of the Arsenal midfield. All three players started versus Vorskla in the UEFA Europa League last month and they were quite impressive going forward on that night.
Attack
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is expected to spearhead the Gunners’ attack up top versus Qarabag. He has been in a rich vein of form in recent weeks and would be tasked with getting the goals that could make the difference on Thursday night.
Both Mesut Ozil and Alexandre Lacazette could start on the bench and might come on during the game if needed.
