Arsenal vs Standard Liege predicted XI: Please win the group

Fullbacks

There’s really nothing that Ljungberg can do here unless he wants to dip into the youth ranks and pull up someone for their first appearance. In the ultimate train wreck at London Stadium Hector Bellerin tweaked his hamstring in warm-ups and now faces a longer lay-off, and Kieran Tierney didn’t even make it a half hour before injuring his shoulder and having to be subbed off.

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That means that we will have Ainsley Maitland-Niles subbing in at rightback, which I’m totally cool with, and Sead Kolasinac continuing his run at leftback, which I’m also totally cool with. So while our dream fullback combo of Bellerin and Tierney has been completely removed from the picture for the near future, we have a great, albeit rag-tag replacement pairing in Kolasinac and Maitland-Niles.

We saw how effective they were against West Ham, though, and these were two guys that didn’t expect to start. They weren’t perfect, but Kolasinac continued his great run of form and Maitland-Niles returned to the fray and reminded us that he is still incredibly talented. All good news. Now we just need them to stay fit and healthy for the clump of December fixtures.

Moving on to the centerbacks.