CSKA Moscow vs Arsenal | Team News | Expected Line-Up’s | Prediction | Betting

Arsenal will be looking to finish the job and book their place in the semi-finals of the Europa League when we take on CSKA Moscow this evening.

We put one foot in the last four after easing to a 4-1 victory in the first leg at the Emirates last week with Aaron Ramsey and Alexandre Lacazette both scoring twice.

Arsene Wenger will be frustrated we allowed them to score an away goal but the truth is we could have scored six or seven so we should be confident of getting the job done tonight.

Recent comebacks in the Champions League by Roma and Juventus should ensure the players don’t take anything for granted but it’s still going to take a minor miracle for CSKA to turn things around at the VEB Arena.

We warmed up for the game with a thrilling 3-2 victory over Southampton while CSKA slumped to a 2-1 home defeat to Dynamo Moscow so we certainly come in to the match as the form side.

Team news

Unfortunately, Granit Xhaka hasn’t travelled to Russia due to illness so Mohamed Elneny is expected to start in the defensive midfield role while Santi Cazorla remains unavailable.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan has been ruled out for a month with knee ligament damage and David Ospina is once again missing due to an ankle injury.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is cup-tied but Aaron Ramsey, Nacho Monreal, Laurent Koscielny, Jack Wilshere, Mesut Ozil and Alexandre Lacazette are set for recalls after being rested at the weekend.

CSKA have a fully-fit squad to choose from and Kirill Nabakin is available again after suspension.

Expected Line-ups

CSKA: Akinfeev; Nababkin, A Berezutski, V Berezutski, Ignashevich, Kuchaev; Dzagoev, Natcho, Golovkin; Musa, Wembloom

Predicted Score

CSKA 1-2 Arsenal: Only once has a side overturned a three-goal first leg deficit in a Europa League knockout tie so history certainly doesn’t favour CSKA. They were dangerous going forward at the Emirates so I wouldn’t be surprised if they grabbed a goal but their defence was awful and I expect Arsenal to pick them off. I’m backing us to secure a 2-1 win and progress to the semi-finals 6-2 on aggregate.

Betting Tips

Having checked for the best odds Arsenal are the even money favourites to win the game tonight which I think is a solid bet. We’ve scored an average of 2 goals in each away game during the Europa League this season while CSKA are bound to score at home against our vulnerable back four so over 2.5 goals at odds of 8/13 looks nailed on.

I fancy Arsenal to win 2-1, which is available at odds of 15/2, but if you want more value then add Lacazette as first goal-scorer and we get very tempting odds of 20/1.