Arsenal Aim to Cement Their Place Top of Group H

Europa League | Preview

28/09/17

Arsenal Aim to Cement Their Place Top of Group H

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The second round of 2017/18 UEFA Europa League fixtures take place this Thursday and the bookmakers favourites to win the competition, Arsenal, travel to Belarus to play BATE Borisov.

Arsenal have been drawn in Group H of the tournament along with their opponents in this match plus Koln and Red Star Belgrade. Given what happened to them in the Premier League last season and the quality of the top teams, the Europa League could be Arsenal’s route into the Champions League next season.

However, Arsenal have very little experience of playing in the Europa League, which although not as a difficult a competition in terms of the quality of the teams involved, can prove tough in other aspects.

Not every team can adapt well to playing on Thursday nights and Arsenal come into this match having played on Monday night in the Premier League. BATE Borisov on the other hand played on Saturday and have had all week to prepare for this game.

This will be BATE Borisov’s first home match of the group and they started their campaign with a 1-1 draw away to Red Star Belgrade.

The point means BATE Borisov are unbeaten in their last six games and have won five of them. They are currently 2 points off the pace at the top of the Belarus Premier League, having played twenty-three games, meaning they are well into their domestic season.

Trends show BATE Borisov are tough to beat at home and have they have lost only one of their previous eighteen competitive matches at the Borisov Arena.

Arsenal travel to Belarus having won their home Premier League game 2-0 against West Bromwich Albion on Monday night.This was Arsenal’s fourth win in their last five games and they have also picked up a good point in a 0-0 draw at Chelsea.

The Gunners started their Europa League campaign with a 3-1 home victory over Koln. However, this match was not as straight forward as the scoreline suggest and Arsenal fell behind and could easily have conceded more goals.

Nonetheless, Arsenal travel to Belarus as the group leaders and have conceded just 1 goal in their last five matches in all competitions. Saying that, they have failed to win any of their last three away games.

Team news and BATE Borisov have no fresh injury concerns following their 6-0 thrashing of Slutsk on Saturday. They are expected to line up in a 4-2-3-1 formation with Vitali Rodionov as the lone striker.

Arsenal have several players missing from this match due to injury including Francis Coquelin, Santi Cazorla, Danny Welbeck and Calum Chambers. Arsene Wenger is likely to rotate his squad with Olivier Giroud coming into the team up-front.

BATE Borisov have failed to score in just one of their last seventeen home games and will look to take advantage of any changes Arsenal make at the back. However, Arsenal will still have plenty of quality going forward and should be able to score the goals to get secure the win, despite conceding themselves.