Arsenal start their UEFA Europa League campaign with a home match against FC Koln, the two teams will meet at the Emirates Stadium on Thursday evening. Red Star Belgrade and BATE Borisov will compete with Arsenal and Koln in Group H, in theory the Gunners should finish top of the table. The two teams have never met before as FC Koln have not taken part in European competitions too often over the past few decades. Arsenal have their painful memories with German sides from last season, when they were thrashed 10-2 on aggregate by Bayern Munich in the Champions League.
Arsenal are out of the Champions League for the first time in many years, so they will have to make the most out of the Europa League experience. Manager Arsene Wenger will probably use this competition as an opportunity for back-up players to get some game time. The Gunners recovered from two consecutive defeats with a 3-0 victory over Bournemouth last weekend, but two defeats out of the first four matches of the season is not what the fans expected. Francis Coquelin picked up a knock during last weekend's match and will most likely sit this one out.
FC Koln had a great campaign last year, they finished fifth in the Bundesliga and earned the right to take part in the UEFA Europa League. They have not been in an European competition since the 1992-1993 UEFA Cup and they didn't get past the first round back then. They had a terrible start to the season this year, with three consecutive defeats in the Bundesliga and a shameful place at the bottom of the table with zero points. Frederik Sorensen got injured during last week's 3-0 defeat at Augsburg and might not recover in time.
Probable line-ups:
Arsenal: Ospina - Mustafi, Mertesacker, Monreal - Bellerin, Elneny, Xhaka, Kolasinac - Walcott, Giroud, Iwobi
Koln: Horn - Klunter, Heintz, Mere, Hector - Zoller, Lehmann, Hoger, Bittencourt - Cordoba, Osako
My prediction: Arsenal to win 3-0.
Here are the odds for the match at Bet365:
Arsenal win - 1.33
Draw - 5.50
Koln win - 11.00
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