Arsenal

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

Arsenal take on Ostersunds in the Europa League last-32 this evening. Here is a preview with team news, line-ups and predicted score

by
Gooner Mac
February 15, 2018

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

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