Arsenal v Bodo/Glimt

Bodø/Glimt have strong European pedigree in recent seasons so won’t have much fear travelling to the Emirates Stadium for this Europa League tie. They beat FC Zürich 2-1 last time out in this group and have a total of four points on the board. Kjetil Knutsen’s men warmed up for this game with a strong 4-1 away victory vs Lillestrøm at the weekend and are now back in second place domestically. They won’t be winning the title this season but should qualify for Europe again.

The only issue for Glimt is that they haven’t travelled very well in Europe this season, actually failing to win any of their five attempts on the road. That includes defeats in places like Northern Ireland and the Faroe Islands, although they did pick up a very creditable 1-1 draw vs PSV Eindhoven in matchday one.

That was a match they might even feel like they could have won but they spurned some late chances. Bodø/Glimt were set up more cautiously that night and they will probably attempt to absorb pressure here. The Norwegian outfit will always retain a strong counter-attacking threat with the likes of Amahl Pellegrino & Hugo Vetlesen though.

Arsenal have only played one group game after their matchday two fixture vs PSV was postponed. They will now play the game on 20^th October after it got re-scheduled. The Gunners beat FC Zürich 2-1 on the road in their first group game, using a weakened more second string XI. The Premier League club will almost certainly be resting several key players here, especially with a huge match vs Liverpool on the horizon. With Arsenal top of the league in England it makes sense that this competition is not the current priority.

They have so much squad depth that their effective reserves should still be able to qualify comfortably out of the group. They can bring in the likes of Eddie Nketiah, Rob Holding, Marquinhos & Lokonga, in addition to some other players who might need more match minutes. Kieran Tierney and Takehiro Tomiyasu didn’t even start vs Spurs at the weekend so will probably be in the XI now. Juggling around domestic and European matches and making the required changes is nothing new for Arsenal.

This match will definitely mean more to Bodø/Glimt, and Arsenal have to be careful here as a 1.20 favourite. They should win, but if they make several changes as expected then Glimt could take advantage. The Norwegian side will be very fired up and love these sorts of occasions. Last year they gave José Mourinho’s Roma a hell of a fright and also beat Celtic twice. Two years ago, Arsenal twice beat Molde in the group stage, so they have a positive recent history vs Norwegian opposition. All of their group games that year contained at least three goals and I expect quite a high scoring contest.

Both teams should be quite attack minded and Arsenal especially will want to put a show on for their fans. I could see both teams scoring and taking over 3.5 goals at 2.0 could be a nice value play. Of course, for those preferring a safer option then over 2.5 goals can be backed at 1.36, but this match definitely has the potential to be really high scoring.

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