Arsenal predicted XI v Sporting Lisbon
Arsenal meet Sporting Lisbon in tonight’s UEFA Europa League second leg and Mikel Arteta has some important decisions to make about his starting XI.
The Gunners ended their trip to the Portuguese capital with a 2-2 draw after a chaotic game against Sporting. William Saliba and a Hidemasa Morita own goal helped Arsenal to a decent result to north London this Thursday.
With a 3-0 win over Fulham shortly after that draw with Sporting, Arsenal now have an almost fit starting XI against Ruben Amorim’s side, with Mohamed Elneny and Eddie Nketiah the only notable absentees from the evening’s squad.
Arteta wants his side to repeat their exploits against Fulham with Sporting tonight and here’s our predicted starting XI for this mighty European clash in north London.
Saka fell as Trossard leads Arsenal’s XI against Sporting Lisbon
Dropping Bukayo Saka might seem like an unlikely move from Arteta given the size of this game, but with Leandro Trossard back to full fitness and Arsenal facing Sporting at home, Reiss Nelson could get a chance to show his quality after he started in Portugal last week .
Kieran Tierney’s return to fitness after missing the trip to Sporting last week due to illness will likely see the Scot return to the starting XI, although we’re likely to see Arsenal’s trusted central partnership of Gabriel Magalhaes and William Saliba return, depending how much Jakub Kiwior fought last week.
With Takehiro Tomiyasu likely to start ahead of Ben White and Matt Turner again replacing Aaron Ramsdale, Arsenal’s defense looks quite strong with only two of the five players regularly starting, and midfield looks impressive too.
Alongside Saliba, Fabio Vieira was one of Arsenal’s best players in last week’s clash against Sporting and the Portuguese youngster is more than justified in returning to the eleven alongside Jorginho, with Thomas Partey dropped on the bench to mark him as Granite for Sunday to keep fresh Xhaka also starts in midfield.
On attack, and as mentioned and seen above, Saka also makes his way to the bench with the England international looking physically exhausted against Fulham, giving Nelson an opportunity to impress Arsenal fans in the Emirates.
With Trossard at the helm, Gabriel Jesus starts the game again for Arsenal on the bench, although given the £50m Brazilian’s lively appearance on Sunday, the striker is likely to see action at some point given how deadly the striker is in recent moments could be against Sporting.
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