Both Arsenal and Milan aim to have a good start in new season's Europa League.

Arsenal:

Arsene Wenger is set to rotate his squad for Arsenal's Europa League opener against Cologne on Thursday. Seven first-team regulars sat out training on Wednesday ahead of the German side's visit to the Emirates in Group H.

Petr Cech, Laurent Koscielny, Alexandre Lacazette, Mesut Ozil, Danny Welbeck, Aaron Ramsey and Granit Xhaka did not train with the matchday squad despite all being match fit.

The Gunners, preparing for their first season without Champions League football since 1997/98, are expected to make changes with an eye on facing defending Premier League champions Chelsea, live on Sky Sports Premier League on Nissan Super Sunday.

But Wenger insists the short turnaround before the trip to Stamford Bridge is not an excuse for poor performance on Thursday night.

"It is a good opportunity to show we can cope," Wenger said. "We have played on a Wednesday night in Barcelona and against Everton on a Saturday morning.

"When you play Wednesday-Saturday it is similar to Thursday-Sunday. It is a preconceived idea, football is down to how you perform on the day. Three days is plenty of time to recover.

"This [Europa League] is not our best chance of a return [to the Champions League]. It is one of the opportunities. I think the best way to do it is through the Premier League but we want to win every competition we play."

Arsenal have not played in the Europa League since losing the 2000 UEFA Cup final to Galatasaray but it could be seen as a route back to the Champions League.

Manchester United won the Europa League last season to qualify for the Champions League and, with a battle for a top-four Premier League finish likely to be more competitive than ever, Wenger may eventually be tempted to look at the same path.

Cologne finished fifth in the Bundesliga last season but have started the new campaign disastrously, losing all three of their games so far.

Team News

Cech, Koscielny, Lacazette, Ozil, Welbeck, Ramsey and Xhaka will be rested, while Francis Coquelin faces three weeks out with a hamstring injury and Santi Cazorla is a long-term absentee.

Alexis Sanchez did train and could be involved as Wenger aims to improve the Chile forward's fitness.

Jack Wilshere also took part and may make his first Arsenal appearance in 383 days following last season's loan spell at Bournemouth.

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This is the seventh consecutive season Arsenal have faced German opposition in Europe - they've faced Bayern Munich in four of those (2012/13, 2013/14, 2015/16 and 2016/17), Borussia Dortmund in three (2011/12, 2013/14 and 2014/15) and Schalke once (2012/13).

Arsenal and Cologne faced each other in the 1970/71 Fairs Cup, with the Gunners losing on aggregate on away goals. Arsenal won the home leg 2-1 at Highbury with goals from Frank McLintock and Peter Storey.

This is Arsenal's first European match not played in the Champions League since the 2000 UEFA Cup final, which they lost 4-1 on penalties to Galatasaray after a 0-0 draw.

Cologne's last European match against English opposition came in September 1995 - they routed Spurs 8-0 in an Intertoto Cup match.

In European competition proper, Cologne's last win over English opponents was in December 1976, beating a QPR side featuring Frank McLintock in the UEFA Cup.

Alexis Sanchez and Jack Wilshere have trained with Arsenal's matchday squad as they prepare for their Europa League opener against Cologne

Alexis Sanchez and Jack Wilshere have trained with Arsenal's matchday squad as they prepare for their Europa League opener against Cologne

The Gunners haven't lost a home game on a Thursday since Boxing Day 1974, losing 2-1 to Chelsea at Highbury - they've won eight and drawn three since.

Including qualifiers, Cologne will be the 64th different team Wenger has faced in European competition as Arsenal manager - he has registered at least one win over 56 of the previous 63 (89 per cent).

Lacazette has been involved in 10 goals in his last 10 starts in the Europa League (eight goals, two assists).

Of players to have featured in the Europa League for at least 600 minutes since 2009/10, Mesut Ozil has the best minutes per assist ratio, averaging an assist every 110 minutes. Ozil featured in the 2009/10 Europa League, assisting six goals in eight matches for Werder Bremen.

In three of Arsenal's last four European competition campaigns outside of the Champions League, the Gunners have reached the final - 1994 and 1995 Cup Winners' Cups and 2000 UEFA Cup final.

Milan:

AC Milan head to Austria in the hope of bouncing back from a bitterly disappointing weekend defeat in Serie A in what was their first real challenge of the season.

Vincenzo Montella's men went down 4-1 with barely a whimper at the Stadio Olimpico against Lazio and after a promising start to the campaign, the Rossoneri were brought back down to earth with a bump.

The Europa League may not be Milan's priority this season although it does offer a route into the Champions League for the winners and after some eye-watering summer expenditure, returning to the continent's premier club competition is the minimum requirement for the seven time European champions.

Before their weekend visit to Rome, Milan had racked up six successive wins in Serie A and Europa League qualifying and they will be hoping to return to that form against opposition how should pose much less of challenge than Lazio.

Austria Vienna are likely to be considerably inferior regardless of the starting eleven than Montella choses to field on Thursday evening, and bet365 make the visitors understandable favourites at ; the Austrians, meanwhile, who failed to win a home game in last season's tournament, can be backed at and the draw is offered at.

The visitors should have enough to get the job done even if they rest players for the weekend game with Udinese, so it might not be a spectacular performance and there should be plenty of interest in the price of for under 2.5 goals, which paid out in both of Milan's away games in qualifying.

Even if the game is not a particularly high scoring one a win for Milan is expected, and the price of for the visitors to be winning at half-time and full-time looks tempting.

Last season, Roma visited Vienna and comfortably won 4-2 with this bet paying out easily, and the Austrian side's poor record in this competition, coupled with Milan's need to get back on track, means there is plenty of sense in backing Montella's men at half-time and full-time.