By Holly Allison
After defeat to Everton at the weekend, Arsenal’s best hopes of earning a UEFA Champions League spot for next season is winning the UEFA Europa League. But the Gunners face a tricky quarter final when they host Italian side Napoli on Thursday night.
Arsenal booked their place in the quarter-finals of the European competition after a goal by Ainsley Maitland-Niles and a double from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang helped their side overcome a 3-1 first leg deficit to beat Rennes 4-3.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang celebrates scoring for Arsenal against FC Rennes, photo by Holly Allison.
In order to tackle the Serie A heavyweights, the Gunners will need Mesut Ozil to be in form to help push forward the attack. After putting in some impressive performances in the last few weeks, he should go into this game feeling fairly confident; the German was one of the better players on the pitch in a dreadful 1-0 defeat to Everton on Sunday.
Mesut Ozil in action against FC BATE. Photo by Holly Allison
A bonus to the Arsenal side will be to give fans some encouragement from the opening minutes to create an atmosphere to rival the travelling Italian fans. Napoli have displayed fantastic travelling support in recent years, especially in England on European nights and that will play a factor for their side’s performance.
2019 UEFA Europa League Football Napoli v FC Zurich Feb 21st
The Italians will be eager to get star striker Lorenzo Insigne back into the starting line-up after struggling with a knee injury in recent weeks; he made a late substitute appearance in a 1-1 draw with Genoa in their last game.
With Insigne coming back it is vital Arsenal go with first choice goalkeeper Bernd Leno. The Italian striker has 13 goals so far this season. The German goalkeeper has been in excellent form in recent weeks, having kept back to back clean sheets for the first time in his Arsenal career.
However, Leno has not featured prominently in the Europa League, as Cech has been a regular starter in the competition. Now at the end of his career, Cech has seen better days and this season has been far from his best. With this in mind it would be ideal for Unai Emery to opt with Bernd Leno as opposed to the former Chelsea keeper.
Defender Laurent Koscielny is expected to be out and midfielder Granit Xhaka who suffered an injury while on international duty for Switzerland is also expected to miss the game on Thursday.
Predicted Arsenal team: Petr Cech, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Sokratis Papastathopoulos, Shkodran Mustafi, Nacho Monreal, Sead Kolasinac, Aaron Ramsey, Lucas Torreira, Mesut Ozil, Alexandre Lacazette, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
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