ARSENAL return to European competition tonight as they face Rapid Vienna in Austria.
After the disappointment of missing out on the Champions League, Mikel Arteta has named a strong side but Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang only makes the bench.
- Start time: 5.55pm BST
- TV/Live stream FREE: BT Sport 2/BT Sport app, EE customers watch FREE
- Rapid Vienna XI: To follow
- Arsenal XI: Leno, David Luiz, Gabriel, Kolasinac, Cedric, Elneny, Partey, Saka, Pepe, Lacazette, Nketiah.
Follow ALL the action from Austria below…
MATCHDAY SETTINGS
Vienna is looking nice this time of year!
RAPID BENCH
6 Sonnleitner, 13 Schick, 16 Petrovic, 19 Alar, 21 Unger, 25 Gartler, 28 Knasmullner, 30 Greiml, 32 Kitagawa, 37 Sulzbacher, 40 Ibrahimoglu, 43 Savic.
ARSENAL BENCH
2 Bellerin, 3 Tierney, 13 Runarsson, 14 Aubameyang, 15 Maitland-Niles, 20 Mustafi, 24 Nelson, 28 Willock, 33 Macey, 34 Xhaka.
RAPID VIENNA STARTING XI
1 Strebinger, 4 Barac, 8 Ritzmaier, 9 Fountas, 14 Grahovac, 20 Hofmann, 22 Stojkovic, 29 Kara, 31 Ullmann, 36 Arase, 39 Ljubicic.
ARSENAL STARTING XI
Thomas Partey starts for Arsenal and Alexander Lacazette captains the side.
Mikel Arteta appears to have gone for the 4-4-2 with Partey and Elneny playing in the midfield and Nketiah and Lacazette up front.
1 Leno; 17 Cedric, 31 Kolasinac, 23 Luiz, 6 Gabriel; 25 Elneny, 18 Partey, 7 Saka; 19 Pepe, 9 Lacazette (c), 30 Nketiah.
HISTORY IN THE COMPETITION
This is Arsenal’s fourth consecutive season in the Europa League, reaching the semi-final in 2017-18, the final in 2018-19 and the Last 32 in 2019-20.
This is Rapid Vienna’s eighth Europa League campaign, reaching the knockout stages on two occasions previously – 2015-16 and 2018-19.
DANGER MAN
Bukayo Saka was directly involved in more goals in the Europa League last season than any other Arsenal player, registering two goals and five assists in six appearances.
BACK IN TIME
Arsenal’s last Austrian opponents were Austria Wien in the 1991-92 European Cup – they beat them 6-1 at home before losing 0-1 in Austria.
FIRST MEETING
This will be the first meeting between Rapid Vienna and Arsenal; Rapid Vienna won their last match against English opponents beating Aston Villa 3-2 at Villa Park in a Europa League qualifying match in 2010-11.
EUROPA TIME
Good afternoon and welcome to the live blog for Rapid Vienna vs Arsenal!
Arsenal kick off their Europa League campaign with a tough group stage opener against Austrian side Rapid Vienna.
The Gunners reached the final two seasons ago, but lost to London rivals Chelsea 4-1 in Baku.
Rapid almost qualified for the Champions League this year, but missed out after losing to Gent in the qualifying rounds.
Mikel Arteta has a couple of men sidelined for the game tonight, Rob Holding, Willian and Dani Ceballos are all set to miss out.
Pablo Mari is still on the mend from his Ankle injury and duo Mesut Ozil and Sokratis will not make the squad after being left out.
Rapid do have some players out, Tamas Szanto, Philipp Schobesberger, Christopher Dibon, and Dalibor Velimirovic are all set to miss out.
The hosts have got off to a good start in the Austrian Bundesliga, they are one of three teams unbeaten in the top flight.
We will have all the latest team news shortly!
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
