{"id":237238,"date":"2026-04-07T06:20:05","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T06:20:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/07\/rice-and-gyokeres-start-ucl-clash-predicted-arsenal-xi-vs-sporting-lisbon\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T06:20:05","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T06:20:05","slug":"rice-and-gyokeres-start-ucl-clash-predicted-arsenal-xi-vs-sporting-lisbon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/07\/rice-and-gyokeres-start-ucl-clash-predicted-arsenal-xi-vs-sporting-lisbon\/","title":{"rendered":"Rice and Gyokeres start UCL clash: Predicted Arsenal XI vs Sporting Lisbon"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div id=\"mvp-content-main\" itemprop=\"articleBody\">\n<p><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/football-talk.co.uk\/topics\/arsenal\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Arsenal News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Arsenal<\/a>\u2019s dreams of a quadruple came crashing down off the back of successive defeats, as they were trumped to the Carabao Cup by <a href=\"https:\/\/football-talk.co.uk\/topics\/man-city-news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"6\" title=\"Man City news\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Manchester City<\/a> a fortnight ago and dumped out of the <a href=\"https:\/\/football-talk.co.uk\/tag\/fa-cup\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"22\" title=\"FA Cup\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">FA Cup<\/a> by Southampton at the weekend.<\/p>\n<p>Their maiden <a href=\"https:\/\/football-talk.co.uk\/tag\/champions-league\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"20\" title=\"Champions League\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Champions League<\/a> title remains in sight, however, and Sporting Lisbon stand between <a href=\"https:\/\/football-talk.co.uk\/tag\/mikel-arteta\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"18\" title=\"Mikel Arteta\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mikel Arteta<\/a>\u2019s men and a semi-final berth. Here is how the Gunners may line-up at the Estadio Jose Alvalade in tonight\u2019s quarter final first leg clash.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fojbq69d4a2298cfd6\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rememore.com\/hair-transplant-in-turkey#utm_source=footbal-talk&amp;utm_id=footbal-talk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-225247\" src=\"https:\/\/football-talk.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/FootballTalk_New_Chapter-rememore.png\" alt=\"Rememore new hair\" width=\"400\" height=\"333\"\/><\/a><\/div>\n<p><strong>Goalkeeper<\/strong> \u2013 Kepa Arrizabalaga played the last two games for Arsenal but could drop out to make way for David Raya in goal.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Defenders<\/strong> \u2013 Gabriel Magalhaes is expected to be fit and keep his place in the team for the Sporting Lisbon meeting, but Cristhian Mosquera might drop out and make way for <a href=\"https:\/\/football-talk.co.uk\/tag\/william-saliba\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"31\" title=\"William Saliba\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">William Saliba<\/a> to re-enter the fore. With Jurrien Timber ruled out of the game, Ben White may continue at right back, with Myles Lewis-Skelly also in contention to play at left back ahead of Riccardo Calafiori amidst Piero Hincapie\u2019s absence from injury.<\/p>\n<h2>Rice returns in midfield, Gyokeres up top<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Midfielders<\/strong> \u2013 Christian Norgaard could drop out of the playing eleven to make way for Martin Zubimendi in the double pivot, whereas <a href=\"https:\/\/football-talk.co.uk\/tag\/declan-rice\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"32\" title=\"Declan Rice\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Declan Rice<\/a> might start next to the Spaniard, coming in at <a href=\"https:\/\/football-talk.co.uk\/tag\/kai-havertz\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"33\" title=\"Kai Havertz\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Kai Havertz<\/a>\u2019s expense. Martin Odegaard played a hybrid role in the FA Cup clash at the weekend but might be deployed at number 10 in the Champions League game tonight.<\/p>\n<p>Noni Madueke could replace Max Dowman on the right flank with <a href=\"https:\/\/football-talk.co.uk\/tag\/bukayo-saka\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"34\" title=\"Bukayo Saka\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bukayo Saka<\/a> injured, but Gabriel Martinelli may retain his place in the team ahead of Leandro Trossard on the left wing.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Forward<\/strong> \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/football-talk.co.uk\/tag\/gabriel-jesus\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"35\" title=\"Gabriel Jesus\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Gabriel Jesus<\/a> could drop out of the team and make way for Viktor Gyokeres to lead the line against his former club.<\/p>\n<p>Here is how the Gunners may look on paper.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.fotmob.com\/api\/data\/lineup-builder\/team?players=562727:David%20Raya,776151:Ben%20White,955406:William%20Saliba,795179:Gabriel,1406436:Myles%20Lewis-Skelly,1031325:Mart%C3%ADn%20Zubimendi,654096:Declan%20Rice,1084981:Noni%20Madueke,534670:Martin%20%C3%98degaard,1021586:Gabriel%20Martinelli,664500:Viktor%20Gy%C3%B6keres&amp;formation=4-2-3-1&amp;teamId=9825&amp;showTeamBadges=false&amp;showCountryBadges=false&amp;lang=en&amp;currency=EUR&amp;measurementSystem=metric\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<!--mvp-post-tags--><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<!--posts-nav-link--><\/p>\n<div class=\"mvp-org-wrap\" itemprop=\"publisher\" itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/Organization\">\n<div class=\"mvp-org-logo\" itemprop=\"logo\" itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/ImageObject\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"250\" height=\"50\" src=\"https:\/\/football-talk.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/new-logo.png\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<meta itemprop=\"url\" content=\"https:\/\/football-talk.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/new-logo.png\"\/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p><!--mvp-org-logo--><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<meta itemprop=\"name\" content=\"Football Talk | Premier League News\"\/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p><!--mvp-org-wrap-->\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/football-talk.co.uk\/231169\/rice-and-gyokeres-start-ucl-clash-predicted-arsenal-xi-vs-sporting-lisbon\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Arsenal\u2019s dreams of a quadruple came crashing down off the back of successive defeats, as they were trumped to the Carabao Cup by Manchester City a fortnight ago and dumped out of the FA Cup by Southampton at the weekend. Their maiden Champions League title remains in sight, however, and Sporting Lisbon stand between Mikel [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":237239,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6807],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-237238","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leagues-cups"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237238\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}