Arsenal predicted XI vs. Napoli: Will Bruno Guimaraes start?

Setembro 8, 2026 lojamais44@gmail.com

Arsenal begin their Champions League journey on Wednesday night as they head to the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona to face Napoli.

Mikel Arteta’s men are hoping to go one better than their last season’s runners-up medal and having topped the league phase last year, they have a lot to live up to this time around.

But fixtures picking up will become an early problem as Arsenal have four consecutive away matches in a 10-day period and so rotation will likely be at the forefront of Arteta’s mind.

Of those matches, you would suggest that the Champions League and an EFL Cup tie away at Ipswich are the most likely scenarios where we will see Arteta mix up his lineup.

With ties against Slavia Praha, Lille and Sabah, Arsenal will be confident of making it through to the knockout phase but do face a run of Bayern, Dortmund and Madrid in the same four Champions League gameweeks.

Getting points on the board in the club’s first two games will be important then and so Arteta will likely not risk full rotation for the trip to Naples.

Ben White, David Raya and Gabriel have played every minute of Premier League football so far and with Jurrien Timber and William Saliba out injured, all three look set to continue in Italy.

Riccardo Calafiori is the defender most at risk of being benched, with Piero Hincapie an able deputy. Calafiori has been withdrawn early in two of Arsenal’s three Premier League games so far this season.

In midfield, Bruno Guimaraes could be in line for his first start of the season but missed the match against Chelsea due to a knock while Declan Rice and Martin Odegaard will play.

Up front, Cristiano Tzolis, Kai Havertz and Bukayo Saka all seem likely to start.

Predicted Arsenal XI:

GK: David Raya
RB: Ben White
CB: Ezri Konsa
CB: Gabriel
LB: Piero Hincapie
CM: Declan Rice
CM: Bruno Guimaraes
RW: Bukayo Saka
CAM: Martin Odegaard
LW: Christos Tzolis
ST: Kai Havertz

Their opponents, meanwhile, have not started well this season having won just one of their three Serie A matches so far this year.

They do though have a couple of familiar faces for Premier League fans. Kevin de Bruyne and Rasmus Hojlund feature for Massimiliano Allegri’s team.