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Arsenal vs Shakhtar Donetsk: Preview, team news, tickets and prediction

By on October 21, 2024

Declan Rice Bukayo Saka Arsenal

The Champions League returns this week and Arsenal will be looking to maintain their unbeaten run in the competition when they take on Shakhtar Donetsk at the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday evening.

The Gunners have made a solid start to their European adventure as they came away with a respectable 0-0 draw from their opening game away to Atalanta before beating PSG in impressive fashion 2-0 in North London.

A win over Shakhtar on matchday 3 would go along way to helping Arsenal secure a place in the knockout stages of the newly-formed Champions League, but Mikel Arteta will have to pick his players up from a disappointing result at the weekend.

We spurned the chance to go top of the table and put the pressure on Manchester City and Liverpool ahead of their games on Sunday after losing 2-0 away to Bournemouth on Saturday evening.

In what was a cagey, tactical opening half hour at the Vitality Stadium, the turning point came in the 30th minute when William Saliba was sent off in controversial fashion. Leandro Trossard’s wayward back pass gave Evanilson the chance to go through on goal but Saliba hauled him down near the half-way line. The referee initially gave Saliba a yellow card, which seemed like a sensible decision given how far from goal Evanilson was and no guarantee he’d still beat Saliba to the ball.

However, the VAR intervened and suggested a review, which led to the referee changing his mind and showing Saliba a straight red card. It was incredibly harsh, especially considering the VAR intervened, as it wasn’t a clear and obvious error and we’d seen countless similar incidents remain a yellow card. Another harsh red card for Arsenal and once again it led to us dropping valuable points.

We battled until the 70th minute when a well-worked corner saw Malcom Christie open the scoring before David Raya gave away a penalty following a poor back pass from Jacub Kiwior. Justin Kluivert scored from the spot to make it 2-0 and inflict a first defeat of the season on Arsenal.

To make matters worse, Man City were on the end of a very favourable VAR call on Sunday as they reversed the on-field decision to allow John Stones’ last gasp winner to stand away to Wolves. Liverpool then edged out Chelsea 2-1 in a close game at Anfield so Arsenal now sit four points behind the leaders and three adrift of City after eight rounds of games.

With a huge showdown against Liverpool coming up on Sunday – a game that Saliba will now miss following his harsh dismissal – it’s imperative Arsenal head into that game off the back of an impressive win over Shakhtar Donetsk. We cannot afford another slip-up and allow negativity to creep in ahead of such a pivotal game against Liverpool next weekend.

How to watch

The match will be shown live on Amazon Prime tomorrow night. Subscribers can watch the game live on their TV or on the Amazon Prime app.

Supporters can also attend the game in person by buying tickets from a secondary marketplace as tickets from the club exchange will no doubt be sold out.

Team news

Mikel Arteta has plenty of injury worries to contend with heading into Tuesday night’s game. Bukayo Saka missed the defeat to Bournemouth after failing to recover from a hamstring injury that he sustained while playing for England during the recent international break. The injury isn’t serious and hopefully Saka will return against Shakhtar, but Arteta may be reluctant to start him with Liverpool in mind.

Gabriel Martinelli was only fit enough for a place on the bench at the weekend after picking up a calf problem with Brazil. The winger could return to the starting eleven on Tuesday but Arteta won’t want to take any unnecessary risks.

Jurrien Timber missed the trip to the South Coast on Saturday due to a muscle issue but he could return to the squad tomorrow night if he proves his fitness at training.

Martin Odegaard is still working his way back from an ankle injury that’s kept him out since September so he won’t feature against Shakhtar. Takehiro Tomiyasu is also still missing after suffering a set-back in his recovery from a knee injury while Kieran Tierney is another long term absentee.

However, there was some positive news at the weekend as Kai Havertz came through the game unscathed after recovering from a minor knee injury, while Ben White also made his return from a knee problem that had kept him out for the last four games.

Shakhtar have no new injury worries with their only absentee being fourth-choice goalkeeper Tymur Puzankov.

Likely Line-up

Arteta may freshen things up but David Raya is almost certain to keep his place in goal while Saliba will start as he’s suspended on Sunday. Gabriel Magalhaes is also expected to start once again while White could retain his place at right-back if Timber isn’t fully fit. Riccardo Calafiori has impressed at left-back and is likely to retain his place ahead of Oleksandr Zinchenko.

Mikel Merino could keep his place in midfield while Declan Rice is expected to start once again. However, Arteta may give youngster Ethan Nwaneri an opportunity to shine from the start after impressing off the bench.

Thomas Partey may get a rest while Leandro Trossard could start on the left wing once again with Martinelli protected ahead of the Liverpool game. I don’t think Saka will start considering he wasn’t deemed fit enough to even be on the bench on Saturday, so the best he can hope for is a run off in the second half.

Havertz is expected to lead the line up front but we could see Gabriel Jesus come in for Raheem Sterling on the right flank.

Likely Arsenal XI: Raya, White, Saliba, Gabriel, Calafiori, Rice, Merino, Nwaneri, Jesus, Trossard, Havertz

Predicted score

Arsenal are the heavy favourites to win this game and will be confident of getting back to winning ways after the frustrating defeat to Bournemouth.

Shakhtar are an experienced European side who could cause the Gunners problems, but our defence is more than capable of shutting them out as long as we can cut out the silly mistakes.

We clearly miss the creativity of Saka and Odegaard, but hopefully we still have enough in attack to see-off Shakhtar on Tuesday. Arsenal 2-0 Shakhtar