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Inter Milan vs Arsenal preview, how to watch, team news, line-ups and prediction

By on November 5, 2024

martin odegaard arsenal

Arsenal will look to put their domestic troubles behind them when they take on Inter Milan in the Champions League on Wednesday night.

It’s been a difficult few weeks for Arsenal as our Premier League title challenge has been derailed by a poor run of form. After beating Southampton in early October, we were right in the mix at the top of the table and were favourites to win the title with some pundits and bookmakers. However, our hopes of winning the title were dented by a shock 2-0 defeat away to Bournemouth after the international break last month. William Saliba’s controversial sending off was the turning point in that game and the Cherries inflicted our first defeat of the season.

Arsenal responded with an excellent first half display against Liverpool that saw us rightly winning 2-1 at half-time. However, Gabriel Magalhaes was forced off with an injury shortly after the break and that turned the tide in Liverpool’s favour, with the Merseysiders equalising to hold us to a 2-2 draw at the Emirates Stadium.

The youngsters and fringe players produced an impressive 3-0 win away to Preston in the League Cup, but the joy was short lived as Arsenal put-in arguably our worst performance of the season on Saturday – losing 1-0 away to Newcastle United. The lack of creativity in the final third has been a worrying trend this season, particularly during Martin Odegaard’s absence, but the players lacked belief at the weekend and showed little fight to get back in the game, which will be a big concern for Mikel Arteta.

The defeat at St. James’ Park has left Arsenal sitting fifth in the Premier League table, seven points behind leaders Liverpool. Thankfully Manchester City slipped up by losing away to Bournemouth on Sunday so the gap could have been even wider, but we still have a lot of work to do if we want to get ourselves back in the title race. With games against fourth-placed Chelsea and third-placed Nottingham Forest up next in the league, things won’t get any easier for Arsenal so we’re going to have to dig deep and get our season back on track.

The Champions League could be seen as the perfect opportunity to respond to the recent slump, however, we face a daunting trip to the San Siro to face an in-form Inter Milan team on Wednesday night. Arsenal have performed reasonably well in the Champions League having taken seven points from our three games so far. A solid 0-0 draw away to Atalanta was followed-up by an impressive 2-0 home win over Paris Saint-Germain. An uninspiring 1-0 win over Shakhtar Donetsk at the Emirates Stadium put another three points on the board but we’ll have to play a lot better if we want to take anything from Inter.

The Serie A champions are unbeaten in their last eight games in all competitions and have lost just once throughout the entire campaign so far, so it’s going to be an extremely tough game at the San Siro. Inter beat Venezia away 1-0 at the weekend to remain one point behind leaders Napoli in the Serie A table and are on-course to put up a stern fight to retain their title.

In Europe, they sit eighth in the table – level on points with Arsenal – having drawn away to Manchester City and beaten Red Star Belgrade and Young Boys. Another win for the Italians over Arsenal on Wednesday night would put them in a terrific position to finish in the top eight and secure automatic qualification to the knockout stages.

How to watch

Inter Milan vs Arsenal will be shown live on Paramount+ and TNT Sports at 8pm on Wednesday 6th November. Subscribers can watch along on their TV or via the app on mobile or tablet devices.

Alternatively, match-going fans can purchase tickets for the game at a trusted online reseller such as Seatsnet.com.

Team news

Arsenal have been handed a major boost with the news that Martin Odegaard is back in the squad. The Gunners skipper has been out for over two months with an ankle injury but took part in full training on Monday so has made the trip to Italy. Arteta is unlikely to throw him straight into the starting eleven but Odegaard will hope to feature at some point.

However, it’s not all good news as Declan Rice has been ruled out of the game after picking up an ankle knock during the defeat to Newcastle. Rice is now facing a race against time to prove his fitness ahead of Sunday’s huge trip to Chelsea.

Riccardo Calafiori is also still missing as the defender is nursing a knee injury that will keep him out until after the upcoming international break. Takehiro Tomiyasu is another absentee for Arsenal with the defender out with a knee problem.

As for Inter Milan, they are confident Alessandro Bastoni will be fit despite the defender being forced off with cramp at the weekend. The only confirmed absentee for the hosts is Carlos Augusto with the left-back ruled out with a hamstring injury.

Alexis Sanchez and Henrikh Mkhitaryan could feature against their form club.

Predicted line-up

I don’t think we’ll see too many changes to the starting eleven despite Arsenal’s poor display at the weekend. Ben White is likely to come in at right-back after coming off the bench on Saturday with Jurrien Timber, William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhaes all keeping their places in defence.

Thomas Partey is set to return to midfield after playing at right-back on Saturday. Mikel Merino is likely to keep his place ahead of Jorginho but it will be interesting to see who Arteta deploys in the third midfield role as Odegaard’s is highly unlikely to start.

Leandro Trossard struggled at the weekend so we could see him drop out. Fans may want Ethan Nwaneri to start but Arteta is unlikely to throw the youngster in for such a tough away game. Kai Havertz could drop back into a deeper role with Gabriel Jesus coming in to support along with Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli.

Likely Arsenal XI: Raya, White, Saliba, Gabriel, Timber, Partey, Merino, Havertz, Saka, Jesus, Martinelli

Predicted score

This is going to be a tough game and Arsenal will need to be on top form to bring home a positive result. I expect the team to focus on being solid at the back and being compact and difficult to break down. Inter will play in a similar fashion, so this could be a cagey game.

There is enough attacking talent on show from both sides for chances to still be created, but I’m not expecting a thriller. Given the form we’ve been in lately, I don’t see Arsenal winning this game but I hope we can take a point back to North London. Inter 1-1 Arsenal