Arsenal return to Champions League action with a tricky league phase encounter against Lille.
Victory would put Arsenal potentially into the top eight, whilst Lille can move into the knockout play-off qualification spots with a win.
Team News
Piero Hincapie and Martin Zubimendi are ruled out for Arsenal after they both suffered an ankle injury during a warm-down after the Gunners’ 2-1 Premier League win over Leeds.
Christos Tzolis (hamstring) and William Saliba (back) remain absent.
Lille could be without Romain Perraud after he suffered a knock during their 1-0 Ligue 1 win over Le Havre.
Hamza Igamane, Tiago Santos (both ACL) and Ethan Mbappe (ankle) are sidelined.
When is Kick-Off?
Arsenal host Lille at Emirates Stadium on Tuesday 13 October at 8pm BST, live on TNT Sports 1 in the UK.
Stat Attack
- This is Arsenal’s first competitive meeting against Lille in all UEFA competitions.
- Lille are making their first competitive visit to Arsenal in all UEFA competitions.
- Arsenal have won each of their last 13 league-phase matches in this competition (W13).
- Lille are yet to win away to English opposition in all UEFA competitions (D1, L9).
Prediction
Clinical second-half final touches certainly were crucial to Arsenal in their comeback against Leeds after they produced a dominant wasteful first half effort, but they did keep persevering even after they fell behind early in the second half and got their reward for a controlled display.
Lille meanwhile certainly do look like they can cause some issues with their solid defensive quality but they don’t seem to have as much firepower as Arsenal, so they will ideally need to be clinical and scoring first would give them extra belief because this is a tough task given their poor form on English soil.
I however do think that Arsenal’s strong league-phase form and depth of attacking threats should see them edge this battle.
Prediction: Arsenal 2-1 Lille
Leave a Reply