Arsenal make the trip to Piraeus to tackle Olympiacos in Thursday’s Europa League game. The Gunners have a 50 percent success against the Greek giants from six previous meetings but they will be hoping to come up with a positive result in the first leg of their round of 32 clash.
Formation: 4-2-3-1
Predicted Lineup:
Argentine goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez has been the go-to pick for the Gunners in the Cup competitions and no changes are expected. He will replace Bernd Leno in goal on Thursday.
In the backline, Arteta may be tempted to make a few changes. Bukayo Saka and Shkodran Mustafi could get a break with Sead Kolasinac and Sokratis making their returns to the lineup.
Kolasinac has not had any competitive action for more than a month and the Bosnian will be desperate to prove his worth after watching Saka impressing as the makeshift left-back in recent games.
No changes are expected in the midfield. Lucas Torreira is a major doubt with an illness and he has yet to travel to Athens ahead of the Thursday night clash.
Matteo Guendouzi was completely excluded from the squad last weekend due to his poor attitude in training during the winter break break. We don’t see him making the XI ahead of Xhaka or Ceballos.
The latter has barely featured under Arteta but he was hugely impressive with his distribution during the second half of the 4-0 win over Newcastle United on Sunday.
Further forward, there could be the solitary change from the weekend. Mesut Ozil is out of contention due to personal reasons. Joe Willock seems the likely pick for the spot and he could probably interchange with Ceballos during the course of the game.
How Arsenal could lineup against Olympiacos
Leave a Reply