Predicted Arsenal lineup and XI vs Dinamo Zagreb as Mikel Arteta receives Ethan Nwaneri injury boost

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Arsenal take on Dinamo Zagreb in their penultimate game in the league phase of the Champions League.

The Gunners begin this game-week third in the table. A win against Zagreb would all but confirm their place in the knockout stages of the competition.

After the disappointing draw against Aston Villa, Mikel Arteta will be desperate to see his side return to winning ways.

Thankfully for him, there’s a double injury boost – Riccardo Calafiori and Ethan Nwaneri are back in training ahead of the clash at the Emirates.

Predicted Arsenal lineup vs Dinamo Zagreb

Nwaneri and Calafiori’s return is a huge boost for Arsenal.

The Gunners are short of options in attack, while William Saliba’s unavailability due to injury has left a huge void in the heart of defence as well.

Despite that, we expect Arteta to keep both Nwaneri and Calafiori on the bench at the start.

In front of David Raya in goal, we expect a back four of Jurrien Timber, Jakub Kiwior, Gabriel Magalhaes and young Myles Lewis-Skelly.

That will allow Thomas Partey to move to the middle of the park and start next to Declan Rice, who will be given more freedom than he was against Aston Villa.

In attack, we expect to see the same front four as we did against Unai Emery’s side – Martin Odegaard behind Leandro Trossard, Kai Havertz and Gabriel Martinelli.

Predicted Arsenal lineup vs Dinamo Zagreb: Raya, Timber, Kiwior, Gabriel, Lewis-Skelly, Partey, Rice, Odegaard, Trossard, Havertz, Martinelli.

Mikel Arteta has to be very careful with Ethan Nwaneri

When Odegaard was out injured, everyone was urging Arteta to use Nwaneri in the Premier League.

The Arsenal manager refused to do that at the time and even came under a lot of criticism for his decision to start him on the bench.

Then, after Bukayo Saka’s injury, Arteta started Nwaneri in back-to-back Premier League games, and the teenager suffered a hamstring injury because of the increase in load.

Nwaneri is available now, but Arteta has to ease him back into the squad. The last thing he would want is to see the youngster suffer another muscular injury.

That is why we expect Nwaneri to start on the bench against Dimano Zagreb on Wednesday night.