The Gunners are currently seating as the leaders of Group F in the Europa League after recording clean-sheet wins over Eintracht Frankfurt and Standard Liege consecutively but they would face Vitoria Guimaraes hoping to bounce back from their Premier League defeat at Sheffield United on Monday.
Having another tough League match against Crystal Palace this weekend, Coach Emery is likely going to make a number of changes to his side for the visit of Vitoria, with his already confirmed plans to rest Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and David Luiz.
That’s not to say Emery is underestimating Vitoria, who have lost both their games in this season’s Europa League, as they do sit fourth in the Portuguese Primeira Liga.
“We respect them,” Emery told reporters. “They are fourth in the table [in Portugal] and are a very competitive team. They lost the first two games but the games were close.”
The only injury headache for Arsenal is Reiss Nelson as he continues to recuperate from a knee Ligament injury while Kieran Tierney and Hector Bellerin would hope to continue their integration back into the first team.
Alexandre Lacazette could be handed a place in the starting XI after he made his first appearance coming in as a substitute on Monday against Sheffield United. He has been away nursing his injury.
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Vitoria have only won one of their last four games across all competitions and they have injury concerns heading into the match, with Ukrainian defender Valeriy Bondarenko having been ruled out with a broken hand, while midfielder Lucas Evangelista is sidelined with a thigh problem.
Vitoria Guimaraes coach, Ivo Vieira also have doubts over goalkeeper Miguel Silva, who has only just returned to first-team training following his own injury lay-off.
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