Sports Mole previews Tuesday’s Champions League clash between Sporting Lisbon and Arsenal, including predictions, team news and possible lineups.
Having hinted at a winter revival with a morale-boosting Premier League success, Arsenal resume Champions League duties away to Portuguese titans Sporting Lisbon on Tuesday evening.
The Gunners put three past Nottingham Forest without reply over the weekend, while their hosts kicked off the post-Ruben Amorim era with a comprehensive 6-0 Taca de Portugal pummelling of Amarante.
Match preview
A two-week reset was evidently what the doctor ordered for Mikel Arteta and co, as a near-perfect afternoon for Arsenal against a hitherto defensively sturdy Nottingham Forest saw the Gunners end their disheartening four-game winless run in the Premier League.
Two stunners from Bukayo Saka and Thomas Partey preceded a first Premier League goal from perhaps the most popular scorer – Ethan Nwaneri – as the 17-year-old became the second-youngest Arsenal player to register in the Premier League after Cesc Fabregas.
Nwaneri was also one of the brightest sparks on the San Siro turf a few weeks ago, but the teenager could not save Arsenal’s bacon after a Hakan Calhanoglu penalty, which propelled Inter Milan to a 1-0 success and condemned the Gunners to UCL loss number one of the season.
By virtue of suffering their first defeat – and conceding their first goal – of the new-look Champions League, Arsenal reside in 12th place in the 36-team rankings but are only two points off a place in the top eight, which would guarantee safe passage into the knockout rounds.
The toothlessness that Arsenal exhibited in Milan should now be a thing of the past with string-puller Martin Odegaard back in the ranks, but Champions League away days have not been their forte in recent times; they are winless in five straight road matches in the competition and have failed to score in each of their last four.
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Only one Premier League side has ever gone scoreless in five straight away games in Europe’s premier tournament – Manchester United from 2004 to 2005 – and even an Amorim-less Sporting have every reason to believe that they can condemn Arsenal to that unwanted fate.
With their former revered head coach now settled at his Manchester United base, Joao Pereira has been placed in control of the reins on a three-year basis and kicked off his reign with a six-goal slaughter of Amarante in Friday’s Taca de Portugal clash, where rumoured Arsenal target Viktor Gyokeres was among the scorers.
The scintillating Swede has recent when it comes to ripping Premier League sides to shreds too, as in Amorim’s last Champions League match in charge of Sporting, Gyokeres struck a momentous hat-trick to help the Primeira Liga leaders decimate Manchester City 4-1 at Estadio Jose Alvalade.
Only perfect Liverpool have out-performed second-placed Sporting in the current UCL campaign, and Pereira’s men are seeking a tremendous 10th consecutive victory in all competitions on Tuesday; their nine straight successes up to this point have brought a staggering 31 goals.
The hosts are also revelling in a magnificent 14-game winning home run across all tournaments since March’s 1-1 draw with Atalanta BC in the Europa League, but while they dumped Arsenal out of the 2022-23 Europa League last 16 on penalties, they are yet to record a 90-minute victory over the revitalised Gunners.
Sporting Lisbon Champions League form:
Sporting Lisbon form (all competitions):
Arsenal Champions League form:
Arsenal form (all competitions):
Team News
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Arsenal’s medical room has emptied out significantly over the past couple of weeks, and only the long-term trio of Ben White (knee), Takehiro Tomiyasu (knee) and Kieran Tierney (hamstring) – the latter of whom is back in training – will sit out Tuesday’s match through injury.
All of Riccardo Calafiori, Saka, Leandro Trossard and Declan Rice shook off their recent concerns to make the matchday squad against Forest, although the latter was only an unused substitute as Arteta sprang a few selection surprises, namely bringing Jorginho and Gabriel Jesus into the first XI.
However, Rice will almost certainly regain his rightful midfield spot in the visitors’ starting lineup, which should also comprise the well-rested Gabriel Martinelli and Kai Havertz, although Partey vs. Mikel Merino is an intriguing engine room dilemma for Arteta to solve.
Hosts Sporting are also in relatively good shape for Tuesday’s game, where their only two absentees should be long-term knee victim Nuno Santos and Pedro Goncalves, scorer of a phenomenal long-range strike at the Emirates in 2023.
With Goncalves set to spend a few more weeks out with a muscular injury, ex-Tottenham Hotspur youngster Marcus Edwards – who scored twice in the thrashing of Amarante – could be given the nod in a fearsome front three with Trincao and the prolific Gyokeres.
Once of Coventry City, Gyokeres has already had a direct hand in a tremendous 28 goals from just 19 appearances in all competitions this season, 24 of his own and four assists.
Sporting Lisbon possible starting lineup:
Israel; Reis, Inacio, Diomande; Quenda, Morita, Hjulmand, Araujo; Trincao, Gyokeres, Edwards
Arsenal possible starting lineup:
Raya; Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Calafiori; Odegaard, Partey, Rice; Saka, Havertz, Martinelli
We say: Sporting Lisbon 2-2 Arsenal
Had Arsenal been travelling to Sporting before the international break with no Odegaard in the ranks, Arteta’s men would no doubt have been at risk of sharing the same fate as Man City, but Saturday’s stellar success ought to be the catalyst for a Christmas renaissance.
As such, we can envisage the Gunners ending Sporting’s perfect home record in 2024-25, but the Portuguese titans are too hot for any team to handle up front and can restrict Arteta’s men to just the one point in what should be a Champions League classic.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
