UEFA Europa League Preview – BATE Borisov vs Arsenal/Malmo vs Chelsea, Thursday 14th February 2019

Can Europa League-specialist Unai Emery lead Arsenal safely through the last-32 when they travel to BATE Borisov on Thursday?

There’s a decent argument to be made for the Gunners now focusing a significant portion of their energy on the continent’s secondary club competition. Out of the EFL Cup, out of the FA Cup, 15 points off the Premier League leaders, and stuck in a very tight race for 4th place, winning the Europa League would be a nice secondary route to the Champions League.

They club is admittedly yet to be properly tested in the competition this season. During the group stages they won 5 and draw 1, scoring 12 while conceding just 2 (both against Vorskla Poltava in their opening game). And when they’ve come up against tougher teams elsewhere they have tended to struggle, case in point being their 3-1 loss at Man City at the start of February.

In theory they shouldn’t have too many issues on Thursday. Winning only half their games, BATE nevertheless finished behind Chelsea in a group that had little real competition. And with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette at Super Mega PGMs of 62-72 and 54-62 respectively, the Gunners are heavy favourites. Spreadex are offering an Arsenal/BATE Borisov (h) Goal Supremacy spread of 1.45-1.65 alongside a Total Goals spread of 2.95-3.15.

As for Chelsea, they desperately need to shake-off their case of the blues when they head to Malmo. They’ve been routinely humiliated in the last few weeks, not only losing 3 of their last 4 league games, but doing so in truly embarrassing fashion. A 2-0 defeat at Arsenal was followed by a 4-0 shocker at Bournemouth, with a 5-0 win at Huddersfield an outlier before their abject 6-0 collapse at Man City.

Really not the best prep for an important fortnight, one that not only takes in its pair of fixtures against Malmo, but an FA Cup visit from Man United on Saturday and a EFL Cup final against City the following weekend.

Despite having their confidence severely shaken recently, the Blues are, on paper, still a better side than their Swedish hosts, with Spreadex offering a Chelsea/Malmo (h) Goal Supremacy spread of 1.25-1.45 alongside a Total Goals spread of 2.6-2.8.