Arsenal
Napoli vs Arsenal: Match preview, betting odds and prediction
This is a match preview ahead of Arsenal’s Europa League quarter final second leg clash with Napoli on Thursday night.
Arsenal take a 2-0 lead into the second leg of their Europa League clash with Napoli at the Stadio San Paolo on Thursday night.
The Gunners dominated the first leg at the Emirates Stadium last week and should have won by a greater margin but missed a number chances so had to settle for a 2-0 win thanks to goals from Aaron Ramsey and Lucas Torreira.
The victory puts the North Londoners in control of the tie but Unai Emery will know not to take anything for granted as Napoli are more than capable of turning things around on home soil and the odds have Napoli as the 7/10 favourites to win the game tomorrow.
It will also be a huge concern for the Arsenal boss that his side have been poor on the road this season and they lost both away legs in the previous knockout rounds against BATE Borisov and Rennes.
However, Arsenal did grind out a 1-0 win against Watford at Vicarage Road on Monday night so they should take confidence from that result as they head to Naples on Thursday night.
Arsenal will be without Denis Suarez as he’s missed the trip to Italy with a groin injury but Lucas Torreira has travelled despite going off with his own groin complaint at Watford.
Danny Welbeck, Hector Bellerin and Rob Holding are all still missing with long-term injuries while Petr Cech, Sokratis, Alexandre Lacazette, Sead Kolasinac and Ainsley Maitland-Niles are all expected to be recalled.
Prediction
Arsenal’s away form both domestically and in Europe has been disappointing this campaign so Napoli will be quietly confident of turning things around at the Stadio San Paolo. However, the Gunners are a dangerous side and showed at the Emirates they can cause the Italians plenty of problems so we think Arsenal will grab an important away goal in a 2-1 defeat to progress 3-2 on aggregate. Napoli 2-1 Arsenal [2-3 aggregate].
Betting odds
Arsenal are 15/4 with many bookies to win the match inside the 90 minutes on Thursday night and are 2/9 favourites to progress to the semi-finals of the Europa League.
The two sides have a wealth of talent in attack and are susceptible at the back so ‘both teams to score’ at odds of 8/13 looks a decent bet while over 2.5 match goals is also tempting at 8/15.
Our prediction of a 2-1 Napoli win is available at odds of 15/2 but for those who want a bit more value, we can add Arkadiusz Milik as first goalscorer in a 2-1 home win for odds of 44/1.
