Arsenal vs Dundalk Preview: How to Watch, Predicted Lineups, Score Prediction & Team News

Arsenal host Dundalk in the Europa League on Thursday evening.

And I tell you what, we need it. Not specifically Dundalk, just another game to take the mind away from the 45 second half minutes Arsenal forced us to endure against Leicester on Sunday.

Paraphrasing Arsene Wenger, he used to always say that ‘another big game is the perfect follow-up to a disappointing result’. What better way to banish a defeat to the history books than to secure three points three days later?

Words of wisdom, sure, but considering the next league fixture for Mikel Arteta’s side is a trip to Old Trafford – where we haven’t won in the division for 14 years – yeah, not so much.

Having secured a comeback win over Rapid Vienna in the first Europa League clash of the season, a maiden meeting with Irish side Dundalk is what’s in store next at the Emirates. No disrespect to our opponents, but they’re not quite on par with United away. Odds of victory are somewhat enhanced.

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That said, who remembers Östersunds at home in February 2018? Everyone does, of course.

Fans can also take solace in the fact they’re not alone in knowing precious little about the Lilywhites, apart from occasionally seeing their name appear when scrolling through the 9,000 Europa League scores. That’s right, this isn’t their first dabble in European competition, so Arsenal mustn’t expect to roll them over – they haven’t got a leg to stand on if they think they can be that cocky.

Here’s your preview of Thursday’s Europa League clash.

How to Watch on TV

When Is Kick Off? Thursday 29th October
What Time Is Kick Off? 20:00 (BST)
Where Is it Played? Emirates Stadium
TV Channel/Live Stream? BT Sport 2 (UK) fuboTV (USA)
Referee? TBC

Team News

Arsenal are beset with injuries in central defence, as just as one has come back, another has been ruled out.

David Luiz is out for the foreseeable after being forced off against Leicester, with Shkodran Mustafi softening the blow – only in the sense he just might block a shot or two – by returning from injury. It still looks like being too soon for Pablo Mari and Calum Chambers to make competitive starts but they’re recovering well from their respective injuries and making progress with their training.

Other than those, Arsenal are in quite a healthy position with no major concerns over their players, except perhaps Bukayo Saka who picked up something against the Foxes. He played on for a bit, but had to come off as the second half wore on. Either way, he would surely have been rested on Thursday anyway.

Willian was pictured in training on Sunday and is likely to be included in the squad, while Thomas Partey will surely get a rest. Arteta should look to field a vastly different side from last week.

Our visitors on Thursday come into the game with an almost entirely clean bill of health, barring some minor doubts over former Tottenham youngster Nathan Oduwa.

Predicted Lineups

Arsenal: Runarsson; Cedric, Mustafi, Gabriel Kolasinac; Willock, Elneny, Nelson, Smith Rowe, Maitland-Niles; Nketiah

Dundalk: Rogers; Gannon, Gartland, Cleary, Leahy; Shields, Mountney, Sloggett, Murray, Duffy; Hoban

Arsenal vs Dundalk Score Prediction

https://twitter.com/biel_m04/status/1320860648348258306

After playing the toughest game on paper first off the bat in the Europa League, Arsenal are now faced with the opposite. Dundalk were drawn out of the hat last in Group B and come into Thursday’s tie off the back of two straight defeats.

Their opening European match with Molde saw them lead but eventually fall to a 2-1 home loss, and their preparations took another knock as they succumbed to a 1-0 away defeat to Waterford in the league.

As ever, there needs to be a degree of care in being overly confident for matches such as these – especially given Arsenal’s paucity in attack – but there is no side Mikel Arteta puts out against Dundalk that shouldn’t win the game. Simple as that.

It’d be nice to see something resembling a 4-2-3-1 with Emile Smith Rowe in the hole and Maitland-Niles more advanced, which can be given 60 or so minutes to impress before changes can be made.

Will we get that? It might be a bit hopeful, but again, whatever personnel play have no excuses not to win. Won’t be overly damaging in the context of qualification if they don’t, but in terms of momentum it sure would.

Prediction: Arsenal 3-0 Dundalk