Arsenal v Vorskla Poltava - Preview and possible lineups

Arsenal:

The 'Gunners' managed to reach the semi-finals of the competition last year where they were beaten by eventual winners Monaco. Unai Emery is somewhat of a specialist in this competition too, having won three consecutive titles with Sevilla. He'll expect a good start to the campaign here.

Injuries for the team are fairoly long-term, meaning that Laurent koscienly, Sead Kolasinac, Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Carl Jenkinson are all still absent meaning there are no recent injury concerns.

FC Vorskla Poltava:

The Ukranian side come in to this one the undoubted underdogs, especially with the match being away from home. They qualified for the competition by finishing third in their league, meaning they will play their first Europa League group stage match in seven seasons on Thursday.

Yuriy Kolomoets is thought to be a doubt for them up front, as well as Vladimir Odaryuk and Denis Vasin also being forced to sit out this clash.

Arsenal boss Unai Emery on what he expects to see from his players in the game:

"We are only thinking about giving our supporters the first performance and a good 90 minutes on the pitch at the Emirates.

"Tomorrow we are going to change things to give players the opportunity to find minutes, to find confidence on the pitch and then maybe tomorrow’s players can play on Sunday too."

FC Vorskla Poltava boss Vasyl Sacko about th excitement of the challenege ahead:

"We will fly to London in a good mood. We understand that we will have to wait in England. We have earned a place in European competition on sporting principle.

“We are not favourites in this group. The frontrunners are Arsenal and Sporting, while Qarabag are an experienced team. It will be very difficult. We will be dark horses, but we will try to win.”

Prediction: 3-0

Did you know?:

FC Vorskla have failed to win 9 of their last 10 games in this competition.

Arsenal have faced Ukrainian clubs on ten previous occasions and have a record of four wins, four defeats.

Arsenal's Henrikh Mkhitaryan played in Ukraine from 2009–2013 for Metalurh Donetsk and Shakhtar Donetsk, scoring twice in the league against Vorskla for each club.

Predicted lineups:

Arsenal: Leno; Lichtsteiner, Holding, Mustafi, Monreal; Torreria, Guendouzi; Mkhitaryan, Ramsey, Welbeck; Lacazette.

FC Vorskla Poltava: Shust; Perduta, Martinenko, Chesnakov, Artur; Sharpar, Kravchenko; Koakhidze, Kulach, Rebenok; Careca.