Arsenal can book their place in the first knockout round of the Europa League with victory over Sporting Lisbon at the Emirates Stadium on Thursday night.

The Gunners beat the Portuguese side 1-0 two weeks ago through a late Danny Welbeck goal to stretch their perfect start in Group E to three matches.

Unai Emery, a three-time winner of this competition with Sevilla, will now be keen to complete the job on home soil this week with a couple of matches to spare.

Here, Sports Mole looks at how Arsenal could line up against second-placed Sporting.

Out: Konstantinos Mavropanos (groin), Mohamed Elneny (hamstring), Laurent Koscielny (Achilles)
Doubtful: Ainsley Maitland-Niles (leg), Sokratis Papastathopoulos (ankle), Nacho Monreal (hamstring)

Sead Kolasinac's return from a month-long layoff was a welcome boost for Emery ahead of the 1-1 draw with Liverpool, offering much-needed cover in the left-back department.

The Bosnian's comeback has freed Granit Xhaka to move to his favoured defensive midfield position, and both men are expected to retain their places for this fourth Group E outing.

After sitting out the Liverpool match through suspension, Matteo Guendouzi is likely to come back into the side, while Sokratis is also in contention to feature for the first time since the 1-0 win at Sporting in the reverse fixture.

Despite his shaky form, Bernd Leno appears to be Emery's first-choice keeper in the Premier League, so Petr Cech looks certain to be given some more minutes in midweek.

Elsewhere, Alex Iwobi, Aaron Ramsey and Welbeck were all used from the bench last weekend and should therefore start against Sporting as Emery is given the chance to rotate.

Written by
Daniel Lewis