Alexis Sanchez starts for Arsenal as they welcome FC Koln to the Emirates in the Europa League tonight.

As promised, Arsene Wenger makes significant changes for the game, which represents the first time that the Gunners have played in the competition in 17 years.

In all, the Frenchman makes nine changes from the 3-0 victory over Bournemouth in the Premier League on Saturday, with only left-back Nacho Monreal and Hector Bellerin on the right wing keeping their places for the visit of the Bundesliga side.

Laurent Koscielny is suspended for the game, while Wenger has given Petr Cech, Alexandre Lacazette, Mesut Ozil, Danny Welbeck, Granit Xhaka and Aaron Ramsey the night off ahead of an important game with rivals Chelsea on Sunday.

Despite the plethora of changes, there is no start for Jack Wilshere, who is instead named on the bench as he gears up to make his first Arsenal appearance in 383 days.

Wenger still names a strong frontline, with Sanchez joining Theo Walcott and Olivier Giroud, while Alex Iwobi, Mohamed Elneny and Ainsley Maitland-Niles come into the midfield.

David Ospina is in for Cech between the sticks and Per Mertesacker makes just his fourth appearance since the start of last season in a back three that also sees Rob Holding earn a recall.

Meanwhile, Sead Kolasinac and Shkodran Mustafi drop down to the bench after participating against the Cherries.

For the visitors, Peter Stoger makes just two changes following on from the 3-0 defeat at Augsburg at the weekend - the side's third defeat from three Bundesliga outings this season.

Yuya Osako drops down to the bench as Jhon Cordona operates in a lone striker role in a 4-1-4-1 formation, while Simon Zoller, Marco Hoger, Jonas Hector and Leonardo Bittencourt make up the midfield.

Mathias Lehmann plays in front of a back four of Lukas Klunter, Jorge Mere - in for Frederik Sorensen - Dominique Heintz and the recalled Konstantin Rausch.

Arsenal: Ospina; Holding, Mertesacker, Monreal; Bellerin, Iwobi, Elneny, Maitland-Niles; Walcott, Giroud, Sanchez
Subs: Macey, Mustafi, Kolasinac, Wilshere, Rene-Adelaide, Nelson, Akpom

FC Koln: Horn; Klunter, Jorge Mere, Heintz, Rausch; Lehmann; Zoller, Hoger, Hector, Bittencourt; Cordoba
Subs: Kessler, Sorensen, Risse, Jojic, Osako, Guirassy, J. Horn

Keep up with all of the action from the Emirates this evening with Sports Mole's live text commentary here.

Written by
Neil Wilkes