Arsenal vs Qarabag predicted starting XI: Youth rules… right?

Arsenal have an inconsequential fixture with Qarabag before December heats up, so how will they line up in this “breather” of a match?

Arsenal are about to go on a torrid stretch of fixtures, as will every other Premier League team, seeing as how it’s December, and they are doing it all slightly battered. Key players like Danny Welbeck and Rob Holding are out of the season and the likes of Mesut Ozil and Aaron Ramsey remain questionable.

As such, the “prequel” against Qarabag should give Unai Emery an excellent opportunity to suss out what youth products may be ready to chip in during the hectic holiday period, because Lord knows we could use the help in the senior team.

Still, this match can’t simply be tossed away to the graces of a bunch of teenagers. We want the unbeaten run to continue, as it has become a source of serious pride in the changing of the times, so selection is still key.

But that doesn’t make it easy. In fact, in my years of predicting starting XI’s before every single match, this has to be one of the toughest, as we are going to have to strike the perfect balance, starting with the uncertainty of what formation Unai Emery is going to opt for.

Now that I have established how likely I am to predict this incorrectly, let me go ahead and start predicting it. We will start in goal.

Keeper

There isn’t much room for deviation here. Petr Cech is going to start the match and provide that vital veteran backbone that could go a long way towards holding a young starting XI together. He probably won’t have a lot of other experienced players around him to count on, barring an odd and dubious first start by Laurent Koscielny.

That said, keeping the unbeaten streak going among a crowd of teenagers becomes a lot more doable when you consider that Petr Cech will be in goal. He is the incarnation of confidence (barring some issues last year) and it always feels good to rely on a No. 1 keeper in second-rate competitions (maybe that came out wrong….).

Anyway. I am going to expect a 4-2-3-1 formation, so let’s move on into the fullbacks.