Arsenal vs Standard Liege: Predicted XI in Europa League week 2

Midfield

Let’s get weird. Well, not weird. But I do want to take a fly at a semi-bold prediction here. But let’s start with the obvious ones first. You can expect to see Joe Willock starting in one of the two holding roles. He’s gradually establishing himself as one of the most promising young men in this entire organization and he is going to take every chance he can to prove that he deserves even more than he has.

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That’s well and good. It makes for good football even when we send out the kids.

Mesut Ozil will start in the No. 10 role, desperate to prove himself. He created a whole six chances against Forest, but the problem again remained that in a match that was so clearly below his international reputation, he still didn’t commandeer the match. He just kind of… floated. And that’s not what Unai Emery wants to see.

Still, he’s going to be out there.

I’m going to give the other holding role to Ainsley Maitland-Niles who, with the sudden clog at rightback and the sudden opening in an enigmatic midfield, deserves another chance to play at his preferred position. He’s very similar to Joe Willock, so it will be interesting to see how that works (assuming it does), but he has budding defensive instincts, and that could be quite helpful here.

Finally, on to the attack.