Despite a rather unfamiliar defeat away to PSV Eindhoven last week, Arsenal’s Europa League group fate remains in their hands.
A win against FC Zurich tonight would see the Gunners secure first place in Group A and receive a bye straight into the last 16.
However, dropped points could result in PSV overtaking them, meaning Mikel Arteta’s men face a play-off tie against a Champions League dropout, a scenario that must ideally be avoided.
READ MORE: Arsenal's best and worst-case Europa League scenario with chance to receive round-of-16 bye
Speaking in his pre-match press conference, Arteta remained determined to field a strong team in order to get the job done.
“I don’t approach games thinking that after half an hour or 45 minutes we will get the result that we want, but certainly I will have a really competitive team out there,” he said. “We missed the chance in Holland last week and Thursday is the last opportunity to achieve our goal.”
Although Arsenal will be under pressure to avoid any upsets, ABC News’ FiveThirtyEight, which uses an algorithm to predict teams’ chances in various sports fixtures, believes the north London side will come out on top with ease.
According to the algorithm, Arsenal have got a significant 89% chance of winning the match along with just a 2 per cent chance of a Zurich victory, while a draw stands at 10 per cent.
In terms of winning the competition altogether, the Gunners’ chances remain second highest with a percentage of 16, slightly behind Barcelona on 24 per cent.
Arsenal team news
There was concern that Arsenal would be without one of their star men for this evening’s clash after Bukayo Saka limped off during Sunday’s win over Nottingham Forest, however, the England international was involved in Wednesday’s training session.
In further positive developments, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Mohamed Elneny returned to full training this week after a lengthy spell out with injury to provide some much-needed depth.
The bad news is that goalkeeper Matt Turner remained absent with what is described as a tight groin, while Emile Smith Rowe also continues to recover from a groin-related injury after undergoing surgery in September.
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