Next Wednesday, 1st of October 2014, the Community Shield holders, Arsenal, will entertain the Turkish giants of Galatasaray at the Emirates Stadium for the second round of the 2014-15 UEFA Champions League edition, on a match of particular importance for the Gunners, who are at the bottom of their group’s table with zero points.

It is fair to say that Arsenal are not going through a very positive period. The Gunners have only managed to win one of their last six matches and their performances have been far from brilliant as well. Last weekend, Arsenal were not able to get anything better than a home draw from their London derby against Tottenham and also they failed to erase the premature elimination from the Capital One Cup at the hands of Southampton in the middle of the week from their supporters’ minds.

The Gunners’ Champions League campaign didn’t also start the way their supporters were certainly expecting as they lost to Borussia Dortmund during the always complicated travel to Westfalenstadion. Arsenal were completely overwhelmed by the German side, who probably put up one of their best performance of the season in that particular match, and are now “forced” to defeat Galatasaray if they don’t want to experience any last minute upsets in this season’s competition.

For the match against Dortmund, Arsene Wenger, who has been going through some complicated days at the helm of the London club, will not be able to count on Olivier Giroud, Yaya Sanogo and Mathieu Debuchy, all sidelined due to injury.

As for Galatasaray, their Champions League campaign also did not start the way they were certainly expecting, as they conceded a home draw against Anderlecht.

The Turkish giants have also been experiencing some difficulties on domestic competitions, as they failed to win their nation’s Super Cup and have only won two of their four SuperLiga matches. The departure of Roberto Mancini and the arrival of Cesare Prandelli is not yet to bring the peace of mind the team needs in order to return to their good old days.

Prandelli is still trying to implement his own ideas and his new tactical approach, a fairly strict 4-3-1-2 structure, with Sneijder lurking behind the centre forwards duo as some sort of playmaker, but the team is still struggling to adapt to this new system.

By playing at home, Arsenal are favourites for the next Wednesday’s match, although and judging by their inconsistent recent performances, they will need to work a lot if they want to defeat the former Turkish champions.

Arsenal

Stats: W-1 L-2 D-2

Recent Form - DLWLD

Galatasaray

Stats: W-2 L-1 D-2

Recent Form - WLDDW

Possible Line-ups

Arsenal (4-2-3-1) – Szczesny - Chambers - Mertesacker - Koscielny - Gibbs - Arteta - Ramsey - Özil - Wilshere - Sánchez - Welbeck

Galatasaray (4-3-1-2) - Muslera - Sari - Kaya - Chedjou - Telles - Dzemaili - Melo - Inan - Sneijder - Pandev - Yilmaz

Prediction

Arsenal 2 Galatasaray 1