Predicted Arsenal lineup (3-4-2-1) vs Koln, Ospina and Sanchez start

Arsenal play hosts to German club Koln in their first Europa League outing in more than 17 years. The Gunners have previously featured in the old UEFA Cup where they lost out to Galatasaray on penalties in the 1999/2000 season.

Gunners boss Arsene Wenger has named a 42-man squad for this season's Europa League, and this gives an indication that he will offer the fringe players a chance in the competition.

Formation: 3-4-2-1

Lineup:

David Ospina has been the preferred choice for the Cup and European competitions under Arsene Wenger, and the Colombia is likely to get the nod over Petr Cech for the number one role.

With Laurent Koscielny serving a one-match European ban, Per Mertesacker could get a rare run-out in the lineup alongside a makeshift defence involving Rob Holding and Nacho Monreal.

Club graduate Reiss Nelson has put in a series of top performances with the development squad, and he could earn his first competitive outing at right wing-back ahead of Hector Bellerin.

Sead Kolasinac has not featured much for the Gunners through the early part of the season, and there is every likeliness that he could keep his place at left-wing-back.

Onto the midfield, Granit Xhaka could be rested for the encounter with Mohamed Elneny a probable candidate to partner Aaron Ramsey, who played just over an hour against Bournemouth last weekend.

The attack front could see a couple of significant changes with Mesut Ozil, Alexandre Lacazette and Danny Welbeck all likely to be rested.

Alexis Sanchez and Theo Walcott could be tasked with playing the supporting role to Olivier Giroud, who should make his start of the campaign.

Arsenal (3-4-2-1): Cech, Holding, Mertesacker, Monreal, Nelson, Kolasinac, Ramsey, Elneny, Sanchez, Walcott, Giroud.