Unai Emery has made slight changes to the lineup from Arsenal’s loss to Leicester as Laurent Koscielny and Mesut Ozil return to start against Valencia.
Unai Emery has ensured a strong Arsenal lineup is fielded to take on Valencia in the first leg of their Europa League semifinal first-leg at the Emirates. The Spaniard has made slight changes to the side that lost to Leicester City over the weekend, with two strikers preferred over wide attackers.
Emery has reverted to a three-man central defence with Laurent Koscielny returning to the lineup after playing off the bench in the last game in the league. He will partner Sokratis and Shkodran Mustafi. Nacho Monreal has mainly been preferred by Emery in that three-man defence, but the Spaniard is only fit to make the bench for this clash. Petr Cech replaces Bernd Leno between the posts.
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Here's how we line up to face @valenciacf ?
What are your thoughts on the side Unai Emery has picked? ?
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Emery has also brought back Matteo Guendouzi into the lineup, and the young Frenchman replaces Lucas Torreira whose form has not been upto the mark in recent games. Guendouzi will partner Granit Xhaka in central midfield, while those two will be supported by Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Sead Kolasinac who take their wing-back roles in this lineup.
Mesut Ozil is preferred to Henrikh Mkhitaryan today as the Armenian is deemed fit for a bench role. Alex Iwobi also joins him on the bench today, as Emery has preferred to go with the partnership of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette up front.
