Ostersunds vs Arsenal | Team News | Expected Line-Up’s | Predicted Score | Betting

Arsenal will be looking to come home with a positive result from the first leg of our Europa League last-32 clash with Ostersunds in Sweden this evening.

Our domestic form has been woeful in recent months with Saturday’s defeat at Tottenham leaving us eight points off the top four with just 11 games remaining of the season.

Therefore, the Europa League is now arguably our best chance of getting back in to the Champions League next season so we should be giving everything we can to win the competition.

Ostersunds are minnows from Sweden so we should be confident of progressing to the last-16 stage but Arsene Wenger knows this away leg is going to be tricky due to the freezing temperatures and the fact we’ll be playing on a 4G plastic pitch.

Team news

Understandably, the boss has decided to leave Laurent Koscielny in north London as he doesn’t want to risk his troublesome Achilles injury on the artificial pitch.

Jack Wilshere has also not travelled as he’s still not 100% fit following illness while Petr Cech isn’t in the squad so David Ospina will start in goal.

Alexandre Lacazette has been ruled out for up to six weeks following knee surgery while Pierre Emerick Aubameyang is cup-tied so Danny Welbeck will start up front.

Wenger has vowed to play a strong side with the likes of Mesut Ozil, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Hector Bellerin and Shkodran Mustafi set to feature but Aaron Ramsey has been ruled out with a groin injury.

Expected line-ups:

Ostersunds: Keita; Pettersson, Widgren, Bergvist, Mukiipi; Nouri, Hopcutt, Tekie, Sema, Islamovic; Ghoddos.

Predicted Score

Ostersunds 0-2 Arsenal: This probably won’t be as straightforward as it should be due to the freezing conditions and plastic pitch which will take the players some time to get used to. However, despite some selection problems, we should still have way too much for the Swedish outfit and I’m backing us to bring home a 2-0 win.

Betting Tips

Arsenal are the 4/9 favourites to win this game with the bookmakers but we can get new customers enhanced odds of 25/1 on the Gunners – just click here to take advantage of these incredible odds [New customer offer, max stake £1, all winnings paid in free bets, valid for 7 days, only deposits with cards/PayPal count, Exchange and multiple bets excluded. T&C’s Apply.].

However, here are some other bets I like the look of:

• Both teams to score at: 9/10 – a £10 bet would return £19
• Exact score of 2-0 Arsenal at: 6/1 – a £10 bet would return £70
• Welbeck to score first in a 2-0 Arsenal win at: 14/1 – a £10 bet would return £150