Arsenal vs Chelsea: Predicting the Gunner’s starting lineup

Arsenal face off against Chelsea in this year’s edition of the UEFA Europa League Final. Below we take a look at who should be starting come kickoff.

The pressure will be on Arsenal to lift the UEFA Europa League trophy and secure their spot in next year’s Champions League. For most Arsenal fans, the starting lineup should be pretty obvious with the players we have available, but if we’ve learned anything about Unai Emery this year, it’s to expect the unexpected.

In the first match against Chelsea, we saw a 4-2-3-1 formation with Aubameyang up top and Lacazette coming off the bench, while the second match gave us a more traditional 4-4-2 lineup with both strikers being used from the get-go.

But since the injury of Bellerin, we’ve grown accustomed to seeing a 3-4-1-2 formation and that’s what we should expect from Emery in the most important game of the year.

Let’s jump into our predicted starting lineup:

Goalkeeper:

Arsenal fans all over the world have been crying out for Emery to start Bernd Leno in the biggest match of the year, especially with Petr Cech‘s potential future being back with Chelsea. But Emery has stayed loyal to Cech throughout the tournament and with Wednesday’s match being the last of his career, I can’t imagine Emery replacing Cech for Leno. Cech will want to end his career on a high and what better way than beating his former club for a European Trophy.

Defense:

We should expect to see three centerbacks line up in this match, as that is what we’ve seen over the last few months. The players to fill those spots should be Nacho Monreal, Laurent Koscielny, and Sokratis Papastathopoulos.

More from Pain in the Arsenal

• 3 standout players from 1-0 victory over Everton
• 3 positives & negatives from Goodison Park victory
• Arsenal vs PSV preview: Prediction, team news & lineups
• 3 talking points from Arsenal’s victory at Goodison Park
• Mikel Arteta provides Gabriel Martinelli injury update after Everton win

All three have been strong performers this year and we should do anything to avoid playing Mustafi in such an important match, assuming Monreal is healthy. Flanking either side of our CBs we should see Sead Kolasinac and Ainsley Maitland-Niles. Expect both to get forward and supply dangerous balls into our forwards.

Midfield:

Whoever dominates in midfield could lead to determining the winner of this contest. Sitting in front of our backline will be Granit Xhaka and Lucas Torreira. They have complemented each other well all season and should get the call for the final.

With Ramsey out due to injury and Mkhitaryan missing out because of safety concerns, our only attacking midfield option left is Mesut Ozil. He will have to take a page out of Ramsey’s book in this match and learn from our 2-0 win earlier in the season and work hard defensively.

Forwards:

Danny Welbeck is fit and has traveled with the team to Baku but that shouldn’t stop Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette from getting the start. The strike partnership has been on fire as of late and combined to score 7 goals in the two-legged semi-final tie against Valencia. Their combination and their link-up play with Ozil will be key in Arsenal’s success.

If these two click, Arsenal will have a great chance at winning their first European trophy since the 1994 Cup Winners Cup. Let’s all hope we don’t get any surprises from Emery for the final game of the year.

Starting Lineup: Cech; Monreal, Koscielny, Sokratis; Kolasinac, Torreira, Xhaka, Maitland-Niles; Ozil; Aubameyang, Lacazette.