The Gunners take a trip to the French capital to take on the Ligue 1 heavyweights Paris St. Germain in their first match of the new Champions league campaign.
Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal side are competing in the tournament for a 19th consecutive season and he’s expected to field a strong line-up for the match at the Parc des Princes.
Changes will be made in the side which faced Southampton on the weekend as Sanchez and Giroud are expected to start but their could be a surprise inclusion of Alex Iwobi in the starting line-up.
Here is the side Arsenal Fever thinks Arsene Wenger will select for the game:
Goalkeeper: Petr Cech scored an unfortunate own goal at the weekend but saved some drilled shots from Shane Long and will retain his place ahead of David Ospina.
Defence: Hector Bellerin, Shkodran Mustafi, Laurent Koscielny and Nacho Monreal. Bellerin has made the right-back position his own and there is no doubt about him starting the match. After impressing in his debut, Mustafi will be eager to make his mark on the Champions League. Laurent Koscielny, who has been declared fit despite taking a blow to the head will start alongside him. Nacho Monreal would be the obvious choice but Wenger could rotate and we could see Gibbs starting in the defense.
Midfield: Francis Coquelin, Santi Cazorla, Mesut Ozil, Alexis Sanchez and Alex Iwobi. Coquelin would be looking to bring through his performance at weekend to the Champions league as he crushed Southampton’s midfield and defense with his amazing passing range and lovely control of the ball. Same can be said of our ‘Little Magician’ whose scintillating passing and pairing with Ozil and Sanchez is just amazing. Ozil did not perform relatively well but there is no doubt he will start today. Sanchez came of the bench and could do little at the weekend and would be more than ready for tonight’s match. Alex Iwobi may start the match and can play at right or change wings with Sanchez throughout the match.
Attack: Olivier Giroud is pushing to make his first start of the new season after regaining full match fitness and winning a penalty at the weekend. We’ll see him come in for Lucas Perez with the Spanish striker dropping to the bench after making his debut at the weekend.
Bench: Ospina, Gibbs, Holding, Xhaka, Walcott, Chamberlain and Perez.
Gabriel is back in full training but I don’t think he’s ready to play just yet after six weeks out with an ankle injury. Aaron Ramsey is back in training but the Welshman has not travelled so has remained in North London to continue to work on his fitness following a hamstring injury.
These sides have not met for 22 years. When they did, in the Cup Winners Cup, Arsenal triumphed 1-0 to see them progress from their tie 2-1 on aggregate.
We are hoping it’s the same result this time too. All and all, it will be an amazing opener for the Champions League.
