Predicted Arsenal line-up vs Porto, Jorginho starts
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Arsenal travel to the Estadio do Dragao for the first leg of the Champions League round of 16 tie against Porto tonight.
The Gunners are currently in superb form with five wins and 21 goals scored. They recently secured 6-0 and 5-0 victories over West Ham United and Burnley respectively on the road.
Mikel Arteta’s side will now be aiming for a good performance at Porto as they look to secure a handy first leg advantage for the return leg at the Emirates Stadium next month.
The club have not won in Porto’s homeground (one draw and two defeats). They have the chance to end the streak to put themselves in a good position to qualify for the quarter-final.
Formation: 4-2-3-1
Predicted Line-up:
David Raya has been Arsenal’s regular choice in goal since his debut in September.
Aaron Ramsdale was handed his Champions League debut against PSV back in December, but that was a dead-rubber game. Raya should start between the sticks.
The defence is set to remain unchanged. Ben White will feature at right-back as usual with William Saliba partnering Gabriel Magalhaes at the heart of the backline.
With Takehiro Tomiyasu and Oleksandr Zinchenko not making the trip with injuries, Jakub Kiwior should continue at left-back.
White could play in an inverted role with Kiwior likely to have more defensive responsibility.
The manager may want more defensive assurance in midfield. This could pave the way for Jorginho to partner Declan Rice in the centre of the park.
The €15 million-rated star produced a man of the match showing versus Liverpool earlier this month, but has not started since after a minor foot issue.
Kai Havertz has been in good form himself, but he could be the player to make way for Jorginho’s entry.
Further forward, Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli are assured starters from the right and left wing respectively for the Gunners.
Saka has been exceptional over the past few weeks. He has six goals from his last four appearances.
Martin Odegaard has also been fantastic with his creativity with four goal contributions in his last two games alone for the club.
Hopefully, we will see more of Martinelli’s pace and dribbling tonight against an ageing Porto backline.
Up front, we prefer the pace of Leandro Trossard over the physicality of Havertz. Trossard has three goals from the last three outings.
How Arsenal could line up vs Porto

Stats from Transfermarkt.com