After a comprehensive 0-4 away win over Slavia Prague in the second leg of the Quater-finals of the Europa league, The Gunners have now commandingly set their foot onto the semi-finals of the Europa League by defeating Slavia Prague by a aggregate score of 5-1.
For the semi-finals, they will be facing Unai Emery’s strong Villarreal side, who are not only doing well in the Europa League but also having a pretty good domestic (La liga) season where they are giving a pretty tough competition to the league’s top teams like Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid. They defeated Dinamo Zagreb 3-1 on aggregate to advance to the semi-finals of the competition.
After their fantastic performance against Slavia Prague, Arsenal have had a dip in their form; drawing to 18th place Fulham 1-1 and then losing their next home game to Everton 1-0. Arsenal will come on Thursday night to play against their previous manager Unai Emery, who was the manager for the club for 18 months. It will be a tough game for Arsenal but Mikel Arteta is ready for the Emery challenge.
WHEN AND WHERE?
Venue: Estadio de la Cerámica, Spain.
Date: 29th April, 2021.
Time: 20:00 (GMT)
TEAM NEWS:
ARSENAL
Arsenal will have a huge boost as their Captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has now been recovered from Malaria and is now available for the important semi-final clash. Also, Alexander Lacazette is also available for this game as he previously suffered from an hamstring injury.
Martin Odegaard will also return to the side after an ankle complaint. Other than that, Kieran Tierney and David Luiz have also returned to the side after recovering from their knee injury.
With all these important players back into the side, Mikel Arteta will now look to make a stong team for the Thursday night’s clash against Emery’s Villarreal.
VILLARREAL
For Unai Emery and his team, Midfielder Vicente Iborra is out with a knee injury.
But other than that, no other fresh injuries have taken place and Emery will look to not make much changes to his starting XI as as Dani Parejo and Etienne Capoue will continue in the midfield and the scoring responsibility to their leading spearhead Gerard Moreno, who have scored an impressive 26 goals this season.
PREDICTED LINE-UP:
ARSENAL
Brend Leno(GK), Callum Chambers, Rob Holding, Pablo Mari, Granit Xhaka, Thomas Partey, Dani Ceballos, Bakuyo Saka, Martin Odegaard, Emile Smith Rowe, Alexander Lacazette
VILLARREAL
Geronimo Rulli(GK), Juan Foyth, Raul Albiol, Pau Torres, Pervis Estupiñán, Samuel Chukwueze, Etienne Capoue, Dani Parejo, Manu Trigueros; Gerard Moreno, Paco Alcacer
