Arsenal vs Qarabag: 5 key players in rare “free” match

Arsenal may have already topped the group and Qarabag may have already bottomed it, but the match goes on. Here are five key players.

Arsenal have their last “free” match of the season as they play host to Qarabag on Thursday. The Gunners have already earned top spot in the group with a near-perfect run, and Qarabag have already bottomed out the group, meaning that there is nothing to be gained one way or the other from this one.

Which is good. Because it gives the Gunners a fantastic opportunity to get some youngsters out there and see who may or may not be ready to step into more first team opportunities, as December could unroll some serious opportunities to those that are ready.

That said, there will still be a senior presence among the team. Petr Cech will get to stretch his legs in goal and Laurent Koscielny will likely be tested at some point in this one, though I haven’t included him in this list because the less I talk about it, the less likely I am to jinx anything.

There should be a ton of youth products in this one, because there is nothing to gain whatsoever other than a continuation of the unbeaten streak, which we obviously still want.

Regardless, I trust a lot of our youth players to get the job done, so let’s talk about five younger players that will be key to ensuring that this match doesn’t disrupt the ongoing unbeaten streak. We start with No. 5.

5. Ainsley Maitland-Niles

Ainsley Maitland-Niles has actually become a senior player all of a sudden, at the ripe old age of 20. Simply because he is going to have more senior experience than most of the players out there against Qarabag.

More than that, Maitland-Niles can and should be in the first team more often. His injury could not have come at a worse time to his future prospects, because it rocked him completely out of the Emery ship. Now that he is back on, he is probably wondering where he was fitting so well at the start of the journey.

Each chance he has to make an impression is a big chance, so he needs to be on top of his game as always in this one.

On to the next one.