Sports Blog 25/10/2018: UEFA Europa League Preview – Sporting Lisbon vs Arsenal/Chelsea vs BATE Borisov, Thursday 25th October 2018

Can Arsenal extend their winning streak to 11 games when they travel to Sporting Lisbon for Thursday’s Europa League tie, at 5.55pm on BT Sport 2?

Though it can be argued that they haven’t had a proper test since they lost their first 2 games of the season against Man City and Chelsea, you can’t take away from the swagger the Gunners appears to have gained in the last couple of months. In those 10 successive victories they’ve scored an impressive 30 goals, a lovely stat slightly mitigated by the fact they’ve only managed 3 clean sheets. Specific to the Europa League, they survived a late wobble against Vorskla Poltava to win 4-2, before brushing aside Qarabag 3-0 in Baku.



Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has emerged as the jewel the in the club’s attacking crown, even if he has to do it off the bench every now and again, with the Gabon international on 8 goals in all competitions. That leaves him with a Super Mega PGM of 43-50, ahead of Alexandre Lacazette at 39-45 and Danny Welbeck at 28-33.

As for Sporting, despite less convincing form domestically, they are vying for the top of Group E with Arsenal, beating Qarabag and Vorskla Poltava 2-0 and 2-1 respectively. Still the visitors should have the strength to keep their winning ways intact, with Spreadex offering an Arsenal/Sporting Lisbon Goal Supremacy spread of 0.5-0.7 alongside a Total Goals spread of 2.75-2.95.

A bit later, Chelsea look to maintain their own unbeaten run when they host BATE Borisov, at 8pm on BT Sport 2. While they may have drawn 3 of their last 4 league games, the Blues haven’t actually lost a fixture since their Community Shield defeat before the season properly got underway. In the Europa League that hasn’t actually translated to a whole lot, however, with both their wins over PAOK and MOL Vidi measly 1-0 squeakers.



Still, that’s enough for them to sit at the top of Group L, 3 points ahead of PAOK and BATE. The latter beat MOL Vidi in their first game 2-0, only to suffer a 4-1 home defeat to their Greek visitors at the start of October.

Chelsea will be missing top scorer Eden Hazard due to a back injury, so Maurizio Sarri could really do with Alvaro Morata (who has scored just 3 times this season) and Olivier Giroud (yet to find the back of the net) pulling their fingers out. The Spaniard sits at Super Mega PGM of 61-71, with his French counterpart at 48-56.

The Blues shouldn’t be too taxed on Thursday night, with Spreadex offering a Chelsea/BATE Borisov Goal Supremacy spread of 2.2-2.4 alongside a Total Goals spread of 3.1-3.3.