In an ideal world, Arsenal FC manager Unai Emery would use tomorrow night’s UEFA Europa League clash at Bate Borisov as a chance to rotate his squad. However, given all the injuries he has to deal with, both in the short and long term, he may have to include a couple first team players here and there in his starting XI.
Also, the Europa League continues to look like the easier path into Champions League for next season, so it’s certainly a competition that could increase in priority down the stretch. There are numerous ways Emery could go in fielding his first team for the away leg of the round of 32 clash, but his options in the back are limited.
Seriously, when you look at the potential combination of 11 players to start this match, there is truly no wrong answer, and thus we invite you to post your own lineup prediction in the comments section.
The Bank Arsenal FC Starting XI Prediction (4-3-3) at Bate
Attacking Players: Alexandre Lacazette, Alex Iwobi, Henrikh Mkhitaryan
Midfielders: Lucas Torreira, Matteo Guendouzi, Denis Suarez
Defenders: Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Konstantinos Mavropanos, Laurent Koscielny, Sead Kolasinac
Goalkeeper: Petr Cech
Arsenal FC at Bate Borisov UEFA Europa League Round of 32 FYIs
Kickoff: Thursday, February 14, 5:55pm, Borisov Arena
Gunners Injury Report: go to this link
Odds via Betfair: Arsenal 2/5, Draw 18/5, Bate Borisov 11/2
Odds via Bet365 to win UEL tournament: Chelsea 4/1, Arsenal 6/1, Napoli 6/1, Inter 10/1, Sevilla 12/1
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, regularly appears as a guest pundit on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
He also contributes sociopolitical essays to Chicago Now. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram. The content of his cat’s Instagram account is unquestionably superior to his.