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Football London
Football London
Sport
James Benge

Willock & Nketiah return, Mustafi starts, Lacazette rested - predicted Arsenal XI vs Fiorentina

Arsenal's penultimate game of their pre-season tour of the United States is against Fiorentina in Charlotte.

And fans can expect to see some rotation.

Unai Emery has already confirmed that the match, which was initially due to be against Roma before the Giallorossi were forced to cancel due to Europa League commitments, will see him hand starts to several more youngsters after impressive cameos in victories over the Colorado Rapids and Bayern Munich.

"The season has different moments, one in pre-season, where we don’t have every player with us," Emery told reporters. "We are preparing for matches where the results aren’t the most important.

"The young players can show their capacity with us and earn confidence at a high level. They can then earn more minutes and a better way with us for the present and future.

"We are really, really happy with every young player because of their commitment to us, it’s very high.

"The performance yesterday, every young player played with a big performance against Bayern Munich.

"Others played the same in Denver with a good result.

"We’ll play some young players against Fiorentina, we’re looking to see them progress."

Arsenal Head Coach Unai Emery talks to Shkodran Mustafi during a training session (Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)

Three players were not in the starting XIs for either of those games and it appears probable that Emiliano Martinez, Sead Kolasinac and Reiss Nelson will all feature from the off at Bank of America Stadium.

Meanwhile Eddie Nketiah will hope to get a reward for his match-winning display against Bayern by starting from the off against the Italian side.

Others who will have done their hopes of featuring on the tour no harm include Joe Willock, Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Robbie Burton, all of whom played creditably in the victory over Bayern.

Whoever starts from the outset in Charlotte there is likely to be significant rotation during the game as the temperature is set to reach 35 degrees Celsius in North Carolina, conditions that Mesut Ozil hinted would affect how Arsenal approach the match.

Layth Yousif on #WeCareDoYou

"Of course if it is too warm the weather you can't really work really hard like what we did in LA or in London so if it is really hot like 35 degrees you have to make another plan for training and I'm sure the coach knows what he will do."

Arsenal XI: Martinez; Jenkinson, Chambers, Mustafi, Kolasinac; Maitland-Niles, Willock; Nelson, Ozil, Aubameyang; Nketiah

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