The Gunners were able to get a victory against Sporting CP at Lisbon in the Europa League match with a solo goal scored by Danny Welbeck. With this win Arsenal moved to the top of the table of their Group in the Europa League with 9 points from their 3 matches so far in this competition. Both the sides wish to win the match at any cost to finish at the top of the table of their group. Arsenal boss Unai Emery has fielded a strong starting eleven against Sporting CP at Lisbon. Bernd Leno was at the Goal of the Gunners in this match as Petr Cech is injured. Granit Xhaka started as a left back which is definitely not his ideal position to play. But the two left backs namely Sead Kolasinac and Nacho Monreal are injured and out of the action for the match.
The pair of Rob Holding and Sokratis Papastathopoulos have started in the central defense of the Gunners while Stephan Lichtsteiner has started in the right back position for the Gunners. Unai Emery has tried to play with a 4-3-3 formation in this match. The midfield trio of Arsenal were comprising of Matteo Guendouzi, Mohamed Elneny and Aaron Ramsey while Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Danny Welbeck and Pierre Emerick Aubameyang were leading the attacking line of the Gunners.
On the other hand, Sporting CP came with their strongest XI in this match against the Gunners in the Group Stage of Europa League. Nani, Bruno Fernandes, Marcos Acuna and Sebastian Coates were the notable names amongst all of them. In the first half of the match both sides have created several opportunities; but no one were able to break the deadlock. Marcos Acuna was shown the yellow card in the first half.
In the second half of the match, the Gunners were desperate to score a goal. Rob Holding was shown an yellow card at the 46th minute of the match. Stefan Ristovski was subbed off due to injury problem and Bruno Gaspar took his place in the side. Henrikh Mkhitaryan was also shown an yellow card in this match. Lucas Torreira came in the field for the Gunners in place of Mohamed Elneny at 58th minute of the match. Nemanja Gudelj was subbed off for Sporting CP and Jovane Carbal took his place in the field. Sebastian Coates was also shown yellow card for consistent fouling.
The decisive moment of the match has come at the 76th minute of the match when Danny Welbeck followed the pass deflected by a defender of Sporting Lisbon. The English centre forward has perfectly placed the goal in the bottom corner of the Goal and Renan Ribeiro has no chance to save it. Sporting CP tried to make a late comeback in the match. Abdoulay Diaby came in place of Nani; but he was not able to change the fortune in the favour of the Portuguese club. The match has ended with a scoreline of 1-0 in favour of the Gunners. With this win, Arsenal have completed the winning streak of 11 games in all competitions under the management of Unai Emery.
