Arsenal: Raya, White, Saliba, Gabriel, Kiwior, Odegaard, Jorginho, Rice, Saka, Havertz, Martinelli.
Subs: Ramsdale, Partey, Gabriel Jesus, Smith Rowe, Nketiah, Tomiyasu, Trossard, Vieira, Nelson, Elneny, Hein, Zinchenko.
Bayern Munich: Neuer, Kimmich, Dier, de Ligt, Davies, Goretzka, Laimer, Sane, Musiala, Gnabry, Kane.
Subs: Upamecano, Kim, Coman, Choupo-Moting, Zaragoza, Peretz, Guerreiro, Muller, Ulreich, Tel, Mazraoui, Pavlovic.
Team news: We’ll have the full line-ups for you very shortly but can tell you in the meantime that Gabriel Jesus is on the bench for Arsenal.Both Harry Kane and Eric Dier start for Bayern Munich on what is bound to be an eagerly anticipated return to north London for both players.
Bayern Munich: The German champions will have to play in front of a completely partisan crowd in North London tonight, as they have been banned from bringing any travelling fans to the Emirates Stadium.
Uefa imposed the one-match suspension on their supporters after they threw fireworks on to the pitch during their side’s win over Lazio in Rome in the previous round. Their naughtiness triggered a suspended ban which had been handed down when they did the same thing during a previous Champions League game at Copenhagen in October.
Glenn Nyberg leads an all Swedish team of on-field match officials in tonight’s game, while his video assistant referees in the Uefa bunker are both Dutch.
Referee: Glenn Nyberg
Assistant referees: Mahbod Beigi and Andreas Söderqvist.
Fourth Official: Adam Ladebäck
VAR: Pol van Boekel and Dennis Johan Higler
Bayern Munich threw away a two-goal lead to lose against lowly Heidenheim in the Bundesliga last weekend and were missing Manuel Neuer, Aleksandr Pavlovic, Leroy Sane, Moussair Mazraoui and Kingsley Coman through injury or illness. All five players are expected to be available for selection tonight.
Thomas Tuchel will be without Bouna Sarr, Sacha Boey, Noel Aseko, Gabriel Marusic and Tarek Buchmann, who are all sidelined. Having missed the second leg of Bayern’s Round of 16 win over Lazio through suspension, Dayot Upemecano will almost certainly come back into their defence. Barring a slip in the bath-tub or some other freak accident on the day of the game, Harry Kane will start up front.
With Thomas Partey, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko all fully fit after returning from injury, Mikel Arteta faces several selection dilemmas in key positions which he has described as “positive problems”.
Bukayo Saka is likely to start, despite struggling during his side’s weekend win over Brighton. If you glance upwards, you’ll see Declan Rice and Kai Havertz walking the disciplinary tightrope – both Arsenal summer signings are a yellow card away from missing the second leg through suspension.
Jurrien Timber, who has missed all but the first two games of the season for Arsenal after suffering a serious knee injury in their Premier League opener, is Arteta’s only absentee, although the Dutch defender is coming along nicely in training and scheduled to return at some point in the coming weeks.
Beefed up security at the Emirates and elsewhere: Police in Madrid and Paris have stepped up security before this week’s Champions League quarter-finals after an apparent threat from Islamic State.
In London, the Metropolitan police said it had “a robust policing plan” in place for the match between Arsenal and Bayern Munich at the Emirates Stadium.
A short time ago, BBC News reported that the Met are “trying to reassure people that there isn’t specific intelligence of an attack, it’s just that somebody has made an incitement towards these attacks.”
Their reporter from outside the Emirates concluded his piece to camera by saying that while the Met want everyone attending tonight’s game to be vigilant, they “don’t want anyone to be overly concerned.”
Muddying their spats in the Champions League quarter-finals for the first time since 2010, when they were given fairly short shrift by Barcelona, Arsenal host Bayern Munich in tonight’s first leg and go into the tie as heavy favourites.
The German side are having a rum time of this season and could be deposed as Bundesliga champions for the first time in 12 years as early as next weekend. Their manager, Thomas Tuchel, will leave the club in June and this is their final chance of winning silverware of any kind this season. Make no mistake, these Bavarian behemoths are a wounded animal and given their European pedigree, should be feared accordingly regardless of their lack of form.
Seeking revenge for the humiliation visited upon them by Bayern the last time the sides met in this competition, a 10-2 shellacking on aggregate in 2016-17, Arsenal’s players will also have the added incentive of facing Tottenham Hotspur old boy Harry Kane tonight.
Despite scoring 38 goals in all competitions in his first season for Bayern, the England skipper could finish yet another season trophyless and will face an extremely stern test against an extremely parsimonious Arsenal defence over two legs. Kick-off at the Emirates is at 8pm (BST) but we’ll have plenty of team news and build-up in the meantime.