Having lost to Eintracht Frankfurt in Unai Emery’s last game in charge of Arsenal, the Gunners have put themselves in an awkward position.
Lose in Belgium on Thursday evening, and they risk going out of the Europa League altogether, as their final two opponents could replace them in the knockout round. But just three days later the North London side welcome the reigning Premier League champions to the Emirates Stadium and Pep Guardiola’s side will be ravenous to get their season back on track after defeat to rivals Manchester United.
What this means is that Freddie Ljungberg, the man temporarily in charge of Arsenal, will have to be meticulous with his team selection to find the right balance of players that can compete with both of the Gunners’ next two opponents.
One decision he could choose to make is to rest top scorer Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang on Thursday as Alexandre Lacazette did not feature on Monday evening during the 3-1 victory over West Ham. Therefore the Frenchman could start alongside youngster Gabriel Martinelli, who has already scored three goals in the Europa League this season.
Matteo Guendouzi is likely to start against the Belgian Pro League side, having featured from the bench against West Ham, therefore Lucas Torreira could be given a break as he will have his work cut out to hunt the ball down against Manchester City. Meanwhile, Mesut Ozil is the sort of player who could be highly effective in Belgium. His creativity can put Arsenal in the ascendency but may he be overrun against the Sky Blues at the weekend.
Unfortunately, Kieron Tierney suffered an injury against West Ham that could see him miss both games, meaning Sead Kolasinac will probably have to feature in both fixtures. But Ainsley Maitland-Niles would be ideal against Standard Liege, while Hector Bellerin’s experience would likely mean him putting in a more assured performance at right-back against the consecutive Premier League winners.
Arsenal do have options to compete on both fronts, but it will be a stern test of Ljungberg’s decision making to ensure that they can compete in their next two games. Only he is in a position to assess how fatigued his squad is, but ensuring Europa League progression must not mean they’re hung out to dry come Sunday.
