After waiting three weeks for a game of football, Arsenal fans now have a second in the space of four days to look forward to as French side Lille come to town for the second match of the 2026/27 Champions League group stage, as Arsenal look to build on the opening win away at Napoli. There’s a joke about London buses, but I’m too lazy to think of it!
This game also marks the return of former Arsenal striker Olivier Giroud to The Emirates in what is going to be a strange evening for both Giroud and The Arsenal faithful. On the one hand, he did great things while he was here, not as great as the man he replaced, but he was a good servant to us. On the flip side, he then went to the scum of the Earth that is Chelsea Football Club and scored the decisive goal against us in the Europa League final and then mocked us on during the trophy celebrations, so…..
I’m torn on this one, but I’m not one for booing these days, so if I was there I think I would just stay quiet. He definitely doesn’t deserve a standing ovation or the ‘Eduardo treatment’ or anything like that!!
The lineup
There’s likely to be changes for this one, with a packed fixture list over the next two weeks, but the recent injuries to Martin Zubimendi and Piero Hincapie are likely to play limit how much Mikel Arteta can shuffle his deck. Hincapie would surely have started this one, given Riccardo Calafiori’s recent injury history so I can see Myles Lewis-Skelly reverting to full back to give the Italian a breather.
Right back could be either, but given he played 30 minutes or so against Leeds, Jurrien Timber is surely favourite to get the nod. The rest of the defence will almost certainly stay as it is, with a rest for Ezri Konsa and Gabriel much more likely against Fleetwood Town next week.
Into midfield and changes are a must if Lewis-Skelly slots in at left back, so at the very least Bruno Guimaraes should come in. I think that might be all the rotations we see in midfield though. Declan Rice has had a long break and looked like he needed minutes rather than rest against Leeds, so he should start again here and the skipper, Martin Odegaard, will be a key player in a game like this, with Lille probably sitting quite deep, so I think he’ll just about hold onto the shirt ahead of Mikel Merino.
In the front line is where I see the most changes coming in. Viktor Gyokeres looked lively against Leeds and deserves a start in my opinion and should get the nod up top, especially with Kai Havertz getting injured during international duty. If we don’t see Eberechi Eze start this one, I think the former Palace man has really problems. Eze surely starts out on the left and then it’s just a question of whether Mikel Arteta goes with Bukayo Saka or Noni Madueke on the right. I’m going Saka, just because he’s one of Arteta’s first picks and I think he will stick with his trusted number 7, despite his struggles in front of goal.
Predicated lineup:
Raya
Timber
Konsa
Gabriel
Lewis-Skelly
Rice
Guimaraes
Odegaard
Saka
Gyokeres
Eze
Subs:
Arrizabalaga
Meslier
Mosquera
White
Calafiori
Salmon
Merino
Madueke
Havertz
Dowman
Harriman-Annous
Prediction
Arsenal should be beating teams like this fairly comfortably if they want to get to the Final again next year, so I’m going to say 3-0 to The Arsenal.
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