Europa League – Arsenal v Rennes: Preview & betting odds

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Arsenal welcome Rennes to the Emirates Stadium needing to overturn a 3-1 first leg defeat in order to qualify for the quarter finals of the Europa League.

The Gunners looked to be heading for a first leg victory after Alex Iwobi gave us an early lead in France last week, however, the game turned on his head when Sokratis was sent off and Arsenal crashed to a 3-1 defeat.

It means we need to score at least two goals this evening with a 2-0 victory enough to see us go through on away goals while a 3-1 win for Arsenal would send the game to extra-time and possibly penalties.

Unai Emery will be hoping to avoid that lottery though and the squad should be in confident mood after beating Manchester United 2-0 last weekend to climb in to the top four in the Premier League.

Rennes remain mid-table in Ligue 1 and looked a fairly average team in the first leg until Sokratis was dismissed so Arsenal should be quietly confident of turning things around this evening.

Team news

Arsenal will be able to call upon Alexandre Lacazette after UEFA reduced his suspension to just two matches but Sokratis is banned after being sent-off in the first leg last week.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan is available after recovering from a minor back problem but Rob Holding, Danny Welbeck and Hector Bellerin remain on the sidelines with long-term injuries.

Stats and prediction

Arsenal are in excellent form at the Emirates having won each of their last five home games in all competitions and have won all four of our games on home soil in the Europa League so far.

We have also scored 14 goals in our last five matches at the Emirates which is an average of 2.8 so Emery will be hoping we maintain that record as the Gunners need to score at least twice to qualify.

Rennes are also in free-scoring form as they’ve scored at least two goals in their last four Europa League games so Arsenal shouldn’t underestimate the French outfit.

However, I think Arsenal have more than enough quality to get the job done and we showed against the likes of Man Utd and Chelsea that we can keep clean sheets at home, so I’m predicting a 3-0 Arsenal win.

Betting odds

The latest football betting odds show that Arsenal are the 1/4 favourites to win the game inside the 90 minute tonight and 4/5 to qualify to the quarter finals. Despite holding a 3-1 lead head into the second leg, Rennes are 11/1 to win tonight’s game and just 10/11 to progress to the last-8.

Both sides are dangerous going forward so over 2.5 match goals looks a solid bet at odds of 20/49 while our prediction of 3-0 can be backed at 23/4 with many leading bookmakers.

If you want a little higher odds then we can add Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to score first in a 3-0 Arsenal win at 25/1, which has got to be worth a few quid of anyone’s money.

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