Tierney and Lacazette both make the bench

Guessing ...

Bellerin, Holding, Mari, Saka
........Partey ... Xhaka
..............Ødegaard
Smith Rowe Aubameyang ..... Pépé

We must come out firing on all cylinders. No holding back. Getting the first goal early is key. 3-0 is a likely score.

Tierney at left back, not Xhaka.

Xhaka injured in warm up! Tierney starts. Let’s hope that works out then.

It is such a rare occurrence that a player gets injured in the warm up but it seems to happen to us a disproportionate amount of times even considering how much our injury record has improved.

Ceballos suspended and Xhaka injured in warm up, I have a good feeling about this, gods are smiling on us.

Partey almost lobs Leno from 40 yards!

How’s that working out then?

Best shot from distance he’s had so far!

Shades of Lee Dixon. Lives long in the memory.

Gooner7 omitted to say ‘early’ is up to 44 minutes

Villarreal looking much too comfortable at the moment.

Bellerin has been really poor so far. Lost the ball in terrible positions on multiple occasions.

I meant 89th min

If that’s the first goal we win it! But all the fans would be dead.

Worth the cost.

I worry whenever he has the ball. He is no longer good enough. Where was he when Saka needed help earlier?

Aaaaaahhh. Post by Aubameyang. Nice effort.

Finally a threat on their goal, good effort Aubameyang.

And of course not immune from criticism just because of that!

And the goal will be from Coquellin, his gift to us.

We've not started that well, very loose in possession. Yet again, teams put on a high press and we don't put any balls over the top to turn their defence.
A high press from the midfield means the defence has to also come higher to avoid huge gaps between the lines, which means space in behind.

At last, a semblance of a shot!

So close Aubameyang

That is an early goal, in the sense that its not too late

Chukwueze having to go off with an injury. He's one of their biggest threats so good news for us

Horrible to watch our passing around the back third and failing to find a way out. Just plain scary at times.

Good one

Ødegaard is hardly in the game. Why is the ball passing him by? Poor positioning or poor tactics?

I keep pining for some sort of intensity from our starts to games. We need to win, we need to score, in my mind the best way to do that is to start high tempo, high intensity and put them under real pressure from the start. Arteta seems to be approaching this as a patient approach under the impression that one of our pre-described attacking moves will eventually work out. It just feels like a low percentage tactic considering the state of the game and quality of our team.

So tense. We need something over the top to Saka or Aubameyang. Pépé is getting in position and being a bit ponderous when he gets in. Or Smith Rowe early higher up, but we’re slowly trying to pass it through the middle

It would be interesting to see the stats on Bellerin’s passing this evening. Looks like he thinks that we are playing in yellow.

Oh No, Bellerin gives it away again

So lucky by their keeper. Got away with a complete lash up.

Decent move. Aubameyang shot nearly fumbled in to the net by the GK

That's more like it. Move it fast.

Not been convincing at all, we need to keep forcing shots, not you Partey.

If some of our players start badly they seem to struggle to get out of the funk and up their level to anything vaguely acceptable. Too many players missing passes and too many players not even involved in the game.

Very nervy when they get anywhere near our goal. This is a hard watch so far.