Arsenal vs Montpellier Preview: Team News, Likely Line-ups & Predicted Score

Arsenal will hope to secure qualification to the knockout stages of the Champions League as they welcome Montpellier to the Emirates on Wednesday night.

After an excellent start, we’ve made life difficult for ourselves with the home loss to Schalke but can still secure we’re playing Champions League football in the New Year with all three points tonight.

We currently sit second in Group B after a 2-2 draw with leaders Schalke last time out, and a win tonight coupled with defeat for Olympikos, would ensure safe passage through to the last 16.

Montpellier are bottom of the group and have no chance of finishing in the top two but they will still be hopeful of beating the Greeks to the Europa League spot, so we can’t take them lightly.

Team News

In-form attacker Theo Walcott has been ruled out after picking up a shoulder injury during Saturday’s 5-2 win over Tottenham. Despite finishing the game, and even scoring the fifth goal in injury-time, Theo didn’t train on Monday and had a scan yesterday to see how long he’ll be out. Wenger is hopeful it’s only a short-term problem.

The good news is that left back Kieran Gibbs is back in the squad after a spell on the sidelines. While Thomas Vermaelen has done OK in recent weeks, it will be good to get Gibbs back in the side.

Gervinho is also back after recovering from an ankle injury but I hope Arsene starts Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in place of Theo after his superb cameo against Spurs.

Andre Santos is ruled out with a stomach injury and he joins Abou Diaby, Tomas Rosicky and Lukasz Fabianski on the sidelines.

Montpellier will be without striker Souleymane Camara after he picked up a third booking against Olympiakos last time out and is therefore suspended.

Striker Herrera should come in while fellow forward Karim Ait-Fana remains on the treatment table with a knee injury

Likely Line-ups

Predicted Score

Despite our 2-0 defeat to Schalke last time out at the Emirates, we have an excellent home record in Europe. We’ve kept 16 clean sheets in our last 50 games and only lost once to foreign opposition during that period. Montpellier have the potential to cause problems, but we should be full of confidence after the weekend’s hammering of Spurs and dispatch of the French champions with relative ease. Arsenal 3-0 Montpellier.

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