Arsenal travel to Ireland today to face Dundalk and will look to secure their sixth win of the Europa League group stage campaign.
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The Gunners have booked a place in the last-32 of the competition as Group B leaders following their impressive run thus far, and manager Mikel Arteta is expected to hand a couple of fringe players the chance to impress tonight.
Dundalk are without a point in the Europa League this term having lost all of their opening five group games, and they shouldn’t pose any sort of threat to a second-string Arsenal side given their form and quality.
The North Londoners have struggled to impress in the Premier League in 2020-21, losing six out of 11 games and winning just four, so they will be keen to make the most of their chances in the knockout stages of their Europa League campaign.
Arsenal will be without Thomas Partey after he suffered a reoccurrence of a thigh problem during Sunday’s loss at the hands of Tottenham Hotspur, while Gabriel Martinelli won’t be available despite making a return from injury since June during the under-21s Papa John’s Trophy game against AFC Wimbledon yesterday at Plough Lane.
David Luiz could return to action after missing weekend’s game as a precautionary measure due to his head injury.
Sokratis, William Saliba and Mesut Ozil weren’t included in Arsenal’s Europa League squad for the group stages, and it will be interesting to see whether any of them will make a return to the squad in January.
Dundalk have all their players available and will be looking to name their strongest XI for the clash.
PREDICTED LINE-UPS
Predicted Dundalk XI
3-5-2
Rogers
Gartland, Boyle, Cleary
Dummigan, Flores, Sloggett, Shields, Gannon
Duffy, Hoban
Predicted Arsenal XI
4-2-3-1
Runarsson
Soares, Holding, Mari, Kolasinac
Elneny, Maitland-Niles
Nelson, Rowe, Pepe
Nketiah
