Schalke v Arsenal Preview, Team News, Likely Line-ups & Predicted Score

Arsenal travel to Germany to face Schalke on Tuesday night. Here is a preview from Football-Talk’s latest contributor Joe Nelson.

Despite a narrow 3-2 shock loss at Hoffenheim at the weekend, Arsenal travel to Schalke and will face a side at the peak of their powers.

The German outfit will welcome back the highly rated young Greek defender Papadopoulos after he missed out on the fixture at the Emirates. However, if Arsenal turn up as they did a fortnight ago, the young defender may not be required to do too much defending as Arsenal were sloppy and lethargic going forward that night.

It hasn’t got a lot better for the Gunners since then. On Saturday it was painful to watch on and see the gulf in class between Manchester United and Arsenal.  A 2-1 home victory really flattered the visitors as United carved them open on numerous occasions making their ‘impressive’ defensive record look rather meaningless.

The main disappointment for Arsenal though, was the lack of energy and drive going forward. A sublime Cazorla goal was the only real noteworthy move Arsenal had going forward, and that was in injury time and long overdue. Jack Wilshere was sent off for collecting two yellow cards, however he can still play in this tie against Schalke. The young Englishman seems to be one of only a few rays of light on this fading Arsenal side and they will need a big performance from him tonight.

Team News

There’s no denying Arsenal have had bad luck with injuries and still have numerous cases going into this match. Szczesny is still short of fitness, along with the dynamic Kieran Gibbs, who had been enjoying his best spell in an Arsenal shirt before being sidelined once again. Abou Diaby and Tomas Rosicky are still 2-3 weeks away according to Wenger, although 2-3 weeks seems to have been the cry for the last 2-3 weeks.

Another midfielder set to miss out is Aaron Ramsey after picking up a groin strain against United. To complete the injury list, forwards Gervinho and Chamberlain are yet to shrug off knocks, although Chamberlain is expected back for the home Premier League game against Fulham, along with Gibbs.

Theo Walcott is also a doubt after going down with an illness on Sunday night but he’s travelled with the squad and should start.

Likely Line-ups

Predicted Score

It’s hard to see Arsenal getting anything from this match, but after an impressive showing last year away to German giants Dortmund, which saw the hosts only salvage a draw from Arsenal in the dying moments, maybe this performance can be replicated to put Arsenal back in the drivers seat in Group B.

However, I can see a hard fought Arsenal performance to give the fans a little more encouragement, but the German side may have too much going forward, especially with the liability of Santos at the back. Schalke 2-1 Arsenal.

What would your team be and what’s your score prediction? Get involved in the comments section.

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