Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has put all five of the club’s new players from the summer on his Europa League team. The team’s first game is on Thursday night against FC Zurich.
Mikel Arteta, the manager of Arsenal, has named his 24-person Europa League team before Thursday night’s first game against FC Zurich in the group stage.
The Gunners are back in Europe after missing out on the competition last year, but they will have a tough set of games in Group A. The Londoners will also play PSV Eindhoven and Bodo/Glimt, a Norwegian team that beat AS Roma and Jose Mourinho last year.
Even though Arsenal had bigger goals than the Europa League, the tournament is another chance for the club to get back to the top of European soccer, and Arteta has put together a strong team.
The five new players for the Gunners are all in the team, including the Brazilian teenager Marquinhos. Since coming to the club in the summer, the 19-year-old has already made a good impression on the U21 team.
And the former Sao Paulo starlet now has a spot in the team, along with Gabriel Jesus, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Fabio Vieira, and Matt Turner, who are also new.
Marquinhos isn’t the only highly rated player on Arteta’s 24-person squad, either. Matt Smith, an up-and-coming midfielder, will also be ready to play in Europe, and young goalkeeper James Hillson will back up Turner and Aaron Ramsdale.
In defense, there are no big surprises, and Mohamed Elneny and Thomas Partey are both in the squad, even though they are both hurt right now. Partey is expected to be back soon, but Arteta has said that Elneny could be out for “months” instead of “weeks.”
Along with Marquinhos and the usual first-choice forwards for the Gunners, Reiss Nelson, a player who has been forgotten, has also been added to the squad. Last year, Nelson spent a season on loan with Feyenoord and did well there. He also made it to the finals of the first Europa Conference League, but lost.
When Arsenal go to Zurich on Thursday, Arteta will be hoping that they can play as well in Europe as they do at home. Even though they lost their first game of the season on Sunday to Manchester United, the Gunners are still in the lead at the top of the Premier League.
Arsenal had won its last five games in a row, but United beat them 3-1 at Old Trafford to end the streak. The home team took advantage of the Gunners’ collapse late in the second half, when they were trying to find a winning goal after tying the game.
Full Arsenal team: Ramsdale, Turner, Hillson; White, Gabriel, Saliba, Holding, Cedric, Tomiyasu, Zinchenko, Tierney; Partey, Odegaard, Vieira, Lokonga, Elneny, Xhaka, Smith; Marquinhos, Smith Rowe, Saka, Nelson, Martinelli, Nketah, Jesus.
