Arsenal vs Vorskla LIVE: Team news confirmed; Unai Emery makes Europa League changes

Arsenal vs Vorskla: Express Sport brings you LIVE Europa League coverage from the Emirates Stadium

  • This will be the first-ever competitive meeting between Arsenal and Vorskla Poltava
  • Vorskla Poltava finished as the third best team in the Ukrainian Premier League – 26 points behind winners Shakhtar Donetsk
  • Unai Emery is the only manager to win the Europa League/UEFA Cup three seasons in a row
  • Arsenal made it through to the UEFA Europa League semi-finals last season

ARSENAL vs VORSKLA

Arsenal XI: Leno, Lichtsteiner, Holding, Sokratis, Monreal; Torreira, Mkhitaryan, Elneny, Iwobi, Aubameyang, Welbeck

Vorskla XI: Shust, Perduta, Dallku, Chesnakov, Artur; Kobakhidze, Kravchenko, Sharpar, Rebenok; Kulach; Kolomoets

HEAD OVER

19:15: Coverage for this match will start after the conclusion of Chelsea’s clash with PAOK. You can follow our LIVE updates for the match by clicking .

TEAM NEWS – ARSENAL

19:10: Bernd Leno was handed his Arsenal debut as head coach Unai Emery made eight changes for the Europa League opener at home to Vorskla Poltava.

The German goalkeeper has yet to feature for the Gunners since joining from Bayer Leverkusen in the summer but replaced Petr Cech in goal.

Lucas Torreira, another new signing, was handed his first start in midfield alongside Mohamed Elneny – who was yet to feature this campaign.

Emery kept Sokratis Papastathopoulos, Nacho Monreal and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in the starting line-up from the weekend win at Newcastle.

ARSENAL vs VORSKLA

18:50: And here are the line-ups. A quick glance shows me that Unai Emery has named a very strong side with Lucas Torreira, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang all involved.

Arsenal XI: Leno, Lichtsteiner, Holding, Sokratis, Monreal; Torreira, Mkhitaryan, Elneny, Iwobi, Aubameyang, Welbeck.

Subs: Martinez, Bellerin, Lacazette, Ozil, Guendouzi, Nketiah, Smith Rowe.

Vorskla XI: Shust, Perduta, Dallku, Chesnakov, Artur; Kobakhidze, Kravchenko, Sharpar, Rebenok; Kulach; Kolomoets.

EVENING

18:45: It’s the return of the Europa League, is everyone excited? I’ll pause for a moment to allow the tumbleweed to pass…

OK, I might not be the Champions League but the competition provides a really good opportunity for Chelsea to bag silverware and book a place in next season’s top-tier tournament.

Arsenal made the semi-final of the Europa League in their last appearance in the competition, and Unai Emery has a rather incredible record in the tournament with three successive wins.

Sounds like the perfect remedy for a win tonight. Let’s have some team news, shall we?

ARSENAL vs VORSKLA

Unai Emery could hand goalkeeper Bernd Leno his Arsenal debut as he is expected to ring the changes for the Europa League opener at home to Vorskla Poltava.

The summer signing has yet to feature for the Gunners with Petr Cech playing every minute under Emery to date – but he is likely to get his chance to impress on Thursday night.

Lucas Torreira is in line for his first start while the likes of Mohamed Elneny, Danny Welbeck and Stephan Lichtsteiner will be pushing for rare outings as Laurent Koscielny (Achilles), Sead

Kolasinac (knee), Ainsley Maitland-Niles (leg) and Carl Jenkinson (ankle) remain absent.

Arsenal provisional squad: Cech, Leno, Bellerin, Lichtsteiner, Holding, Mustafi, Mavropanos, Papastathopoulos, Monreal, Xhaka, Elneny, Torreira, Guendouzi, Ramsey, Iwobi, Mkhitaryan, Ozil, Welbeck, Lacazette, Aubameyang.