Arsenal kick off their Champions League campaign on Tuesday with a tricky away game at Turkish side Besiktas in the first leg of their qualifying round tie. The Gunners might have to do without left back Kieran Gibbs after he has suffered a hamstring injury in their 2-1 win over Crystal Palace on the opening day of the new Premier League season.
Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has confirmed that German internationals Mesut Ozil, Per Mertesacker and Lukas Podolski will not make their return to the pitch before the team's away match at Everton next weekend as they are still on leave after the World Cup.
Former Chelsea striker Demba Ba will be available for the home side. Coach Slaven Bilic will also send in Kerim Frei, a player that had a crucial role in their victory over Feyenoord in the previous round. Besiktas have not yet started their domestic campaign, but they were beaten by Wigan Athletic in a pre-season friendly this summer. This will be the first ever competitive match between these two clubs.
Probable starting line-ups:
Besiktas: Zengen - Kurtulus, Sahan, Pektemek, Hutchinson - Ozyakup, Uysal, Frei, Gulu, Ramon - Ba
Arsenal: Szczesny - Monreal, Debuchy, Chambers, Koscielny - Arteta, Sanchez, Ramsey, Rosicky - Campbell, Giroud
My prediction: Arsenal to win 2-0.
Here are the odds for the match at Bet365:
Besiktas win - 9/2 Draw - 14/5 Arsenal win - 8/13
Snoop 9 years ago
Besiktas maybe have some chances in Turkey, because they have great fans, atmosphere will be fantastic, but Arsenal know how to play on big scene, we saw everything last year against Galata, so it will be interesting match, but victory of Arsenal :)
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skrunici 9 years ago
just compare this two squad... It is huge difference and I don't see way to besiktas do something to arsenal. Arsenal wil easly go to group stage and they have players for more than that
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