Arsenal will seek to forget their recent away woes when they make the trip to Sweden to face-off against Ostersund on Thursday evening.
With a top-four finish looking highly difficult for the same season on the trot, Arsene Wenger’s side may have to win the Europa League altogether.
As a result, they will be desperate to make progress beyond round of 32 of the competition, and winning by a big margin over Ostersund is more of a must with the reverse leg scheduled just a few days before the League Cup final.
Formation: 4-2-3-1
Lineup:
Petr Cech has been left of the travelling squad, and this very much guarantees David Ospina another start between the sticks. The Colombian has been the Gunners’ regular in the Cup competitions with just one cameo appearance in the top-flight this term.
Hector Bellerin and Nacho Monreal are likely to take up the full-back positions for the game, but there is expected to be a change in the central defensive department with Laurent Koscielny left out.
Calum Chambers has been the Gunners’ third-choice centre-back ahead of Rob Holding and Per Mertesacker, and he could earn a rare start versus Shkodran Mustafi for the midweek outing.
In midfield, the Gunners have to contend with the absence of Aaron Ramsey and Jack Wilshere and hence Mohamed Elneny is expected to start alongside Granit Xhaka in the centre of the park.
Further forward, Alex Iwobi and Mesut Ozil are expected to feature in the left and right wing positions respectively, whilst Henrikh Mkhitaryan should should earn his first European start for the season in the number 10 role.
Danny Welbeck is expected to start upfront for the Gunners with both Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang unavailable for the outing.
Lacazette is sidelined for the best part of six weeks after a knee surgery whilst Aubameyang is Cup-tied with Borussia Dortmund having dropped to the Europa League for the second half of the campaign.
