After dishing out a resilient performance in the Premier League against arch-rivals Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal are up for another stern challenge when they face French outfit Stade Rennais in their next encounter in the Europa League. The Gunners beat BATE Borisov in the second leg of their round of 32 clash at Emirates Stadium by 3-0 to advance to the next round on aggregate and will look to make it through to the quarter-final of the competition. However, it would not be an easy task to get the better of Rennes in their own backyard.
The Ligue 1 outfit, on the other hand, would be full of confidence as they will go into the match against Arsenal on the back of a comfortable 2-0 quarterfinal victory in the French Cup over US Orleans. They will look to stun the Europa League finalists from the last season and pull off a shock result with the home support on their side.
Team News
Unai Emery will be happy to have a fully fit squad at his disposal as there are no recent injuries other than the long term absentees Hector Bellerin, Rob Holding and Danny Welbeck. It comes as a significant boost for the Spanish gaffer as he would have the luxury to rotate his options around for this match ahead of the game against Manchester United in the weekend.
Goalkeeper
Veteran Petr Cech is expected to start in the goal for the next match as Bernd Leno would get a well-deserved rest after a decent performance against Spurs.
Defence
Laurent Koscielny would start in the heart of the backline alongside Shkodran Mustafi as Sokratis Papastathopoulos starts on the bench. The duo had a good game against BATE and will look to dish out a similar performance when they take on Rennes in the next match.
Stephan Lichtsteiner would start in the right back position while Nacho Monreal is expected to put in a shift from the left side of the backline.
Midfield
Matteo Guendouzi and Granit Xhaka are expected to start in central midfield in the next match. Mesut Ozil would be handed another start in the attacking midfielder position after his decent display in recent games.
Attack
Henrikh Mkhitaryan would start as the wide attacker from the right. Alex Iwobi would put in a shift from the left as the wide attacker. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is expected to lead the line for the Gunners against Rennes.
Predicted Formation: 4-2-3-1
