Key Arsenal players ruled out of tough test, but Emery handed defensive boost - originally posted on Sportslens.com
Arsenal visit Eintracht Frankfurt on Thursday hoping to kick-off their Europa League campaign with a victory.
The Gunners were beaten by Chelsea in last season’s final and will be confident of progressing a long way this time around.
Mesut Ozil and Sokratis Papastathopoulos have been left at home by manager Unai Emery, while Alexandre Lacazette is still out with an ankle injury.
Konstantinos Mavropanos, Kieran Tierney and Hector Bellerin remain on the sidelines.
However, Rob Holding could come back into contention after 10 months out, although he is more likely to feature on the bench.
Mijat Gacinovic, Jonathan de Guzman and Marco Russ miss out for Eintracht, while Sebastian Rode and Goncalo Paciencia are both doubtful.
Arsenal have lost their last four away games against German opponents, while Eintracht are unbeaten in their last 16 matches in European competition.
Predicted starting line-ups:
Eintracht: Trapp, Abraham, Hinteregger, Hasebe, Rode, Gregoritsch, Sow, Chandler, da Costa, Silva, Cordova.
Arsenal: Martinez, Maitland-Niles, Chambers, Mustafi, Kolasinac, Xhaka, Willock, Torreira, Pepe, Aubameyang, Nelson.
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