Arsenal take on FC Basel in the Champions League a little later tonight and will need to put a stop to the visitors’ impressive record against English clubs. The Gunners are on excellent domestic form and will want to carry that over to European competition.
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Match: Arsenal v FC Basel
Stadium: Emirates Stadium
Kick Off (GMT): Tue 28 Sep 19:45
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Preview
A lot has been made about FC Basel’s record against English clubs. The Swiss side have secured wins over Chelsea, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur in recent years which is mightily impressive. However, the statistics still point towards a Gunners win. Basel may have beaten some of the biggest English sides but the club’s record when travelling to England has been awful. The Swiss champions have won just one of their last twelve matches when playing away at English clubs.
Despite that it is still the first meeting between the two clubs so there is obviously an element of the unknown. The Gunners of course lost their first home match in the Champions League last season and will be hoping to avoid a repeat of that later this evening.
The match will also be a family affair. Arsenal’s Granit Xhaka will face off against his brother, Taulant in the Basel midfield this evening. The pair haven’t played against one another since the European Championships. Granit won that day after Fabian Schar goal helped secure a 1-0 victory for Switzerland over Albania in Group A.
The fixture at the Emirates also sees another Arsenal player come up against some familiar faces. Mohamed Elneny was of course signed from FC Basel in January of this year and could well start against his former club for the first time.
Expect a thrilling 90 minutes!
Team News
See here for the full team news
The Gunners are obviously missing a number of first team players for the fixture. Danny Welbeck, Aaron Ramsey and Per Mertesacker are all still out but there are also a number of other injury concerns. Olivier Giroud seems to have had a setback in the toe injury he sustained against PSG a fortnight ago and Francis Coquelin will miss three weeks. The Coquelin news is better than first feared but is certainly not ideal.
Arsenal Predicted Lineup
See here for the full predicted lineup article
Predicted score
Arsenal 3-1 FC Basel
COYG!