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The Gunners take on RC Lens at the Stade Bollaert-Delelis this evening in the UEFA Champions League, with a kick-off time of 20:00. Tonight’s referee is Marco Guida, and the match is live on TNT Sports 2.
RC Lens currently sit 15th in Ligue 1 with 6 points, having only picked up one victory in their first 7 league matches, conceding 15 and scoring 10, while Arsenal sit 3rd in the Premier League with 17 points (5 wins and 2 draws), having scored 15 and conceded 6. The Gunners got off to a winning start in the Champions League, with a comfortable 4-0 win at home to PSV Eindhoven, while RC Lens picked up a point in a 1-1 draw in Sevilla.
Both sets of teams will be published live below, so refresh the page at 19:00 to view both line-ups and benches.
RC Lens XI: 30. Samba (c), 14. Medina, 4. Danso, 24. Gradit, 3. Machado, 6. Abdul Samed, 26. Mendy, 29. Frankowski, 28. Thomasson, 7. Sotoca, 9. Wahi.
Substitutes: 16. Leca (GK), 40. Pandor, 25. Khusanov, 20. Maouassa, 2. Aguilar, 23. El Aynaoui, 11. Fulgini, 18. Diouf, 27. Guilavogui, 22. Saïd.
Arsenal XI: 22. Raya, 18. Tomiyasu, 2. Saliba, 6. Gabriel, 35. Zinchenko, 41. Rice, 8. Odegaard (c), 29. Havertz, 7. Saka, 19. Trossard, 9. Jesus.
Substitutes: 1. Ramsdale (GK), 31. Hein (GK), 4. White, 15. Kiwior, 17. Cedric, 10. Smith Rowe, 5. Thomas, 20. Jorginho, 21. Vieira, 25. Elneny, 24. Nelson, 14. Nketiah.
Referee: Marco Guida (Italy).
Assistant Referee: Filippo Meli (Italy).
Assistant Referee: Giorgio Peretti (Italy).
Fourth Official: Matteo Marchetti (Italy).
Video Assistant Referee: Paolo Valeri (Italy).
Additional Video Assistant Referee: Michael Fabbri (Italy)
UEFA Referee Observer: Vladimir Antonov (Moldolva)
UEFA Delegate: Bakar Jordania (Georgia)
Pre-match views from the forum:
Dokaka: “I think if you argue against rotation for this game you should also forfeit the ability to moan about not making subs to avoid injuries etc. Lens are absolute poverty right now, they sold their two-star players and replaced them with kids and their performances in the league reflect that.
You need to be able to win this game with a heavily rotated starting XI, otherwise, there is zero point in having a deep squad. The whole point is being able to compete across several competitions and not just have a list of players ready to step in when a starter gets run into the ground.
There is literally not a single player in this Lens team that would get into your match-day squad.”
Gooner Zig: “I’m not against rotation, I’m against Europa-style rotation where we pretty much change the entirety of the first XI.
I don’t think any of Zinchenko, Saka, or Rice should be starting vs. Lens; I would like to see ESR, Nelson and Vieira start. Tomiyasu and Kiwior deserve minutes too.”
NieThePiet: “Players like Saka, Ødegaard or Saliba are dreaming of playing in the CL for years, it’s their first time ever for them. Absolutely no chance they would like to sit on the bench if they are fully fit. There is never a guarantee that you will play in the CL again, especially in the PL.
You still can rest players if you do most of the job in around 60 minutes and then you can sub off Saka and others. Only because the individual quality of squad players is better than the one from the starters from Lens, it doesn’t mean the team performance form Lens can’t be better. We survived with a rotated team against Brentford, but had a lot of luck/clearances in the second half.”
