Athletico Bilbao – the Untold Arsenal team prediction

By Tony Attwood

My apologies that yet again, Untold Arsenal has come under attack and the site is down.   I have written the brief preview of tonight’s game below in the hope that we will get the site back later today and can transfer it there.

I can only say that the problems we are having are probably hurting me more than they are hurting you..  But here are a few notes and a prediction of the team.

Arsenal played 14 games in the Champions League last season, losing just one of the first eight games in the group stage (that to Inter away 1-0), before the two defeats to PSG at the end).  

But those two semi-final defeats were each by a single goal, suggesting the Arsenal team of last season was not that far off the pace when it came to Europe.   And of course, there was the season that involved the 7-1 away win against PSV Eindhoven and a 5-1 away win against Sporting Clube Portugal.

And today we are against Athletic Bilbao, once more of course, in Portugal.   We can certainly hope for a better start to the series than we had last season, when on 19 September it was a goalless draw against Atalanta, before a rather fine 2-0 over PSG (who sadly came back to haunt us). All things considered, including last season’s achievements, it looks like a match Arsenal can win.

Sports Mole gives us a prediction of 0-2 Arsenal win with a line-up of 

Raya;

Timber, Mosquera, Hincapie, Lewis-Skelly;

Merino, Zubimendi, Rice;

Madueke, Gyokeres, Martinelli

Certainly, that 0-2 would be a very positive start to the eight-game group stage of the competition.

The thought here about Saka is that given that there is a forthcoming game against Manchester City, the manager might well not rush him back as yet and of course, this is exactly what was intended with all the transfers this summer.   Not the injury so much as the ability to handle injuries without bringing players back too soon.   And of course that also means a night off four our injured captain.

The issue with Odegaard appears to be one of him coming back a bit too soon after the last injury – but of course, these things are very hard to judge.   His new problem is with the same shoulder that he injured just a couple of games ago, and I imagine with the extended squad Arsenal now has, this time they will give the captain as long as the medics want to get it fully repaired.

Indeed, it is also worth noting that so far this season Arsenal have only conceded one goal, while for the opposition tonight all of their games this season have only had a difference of one goal at most.