Hello and welcome to Eurosport's live commentary of the Europa League group stage clash between Arsenal and BATE Borisov. This is Ryan Bailey (@ryanjaybailey) taking you through all the action from The Emirates — or “Arsenal Stadium” as its known by the famously corporation-shy UEFA. Kick off is 20.05, team news to follow shortly.

We're off! Austrian ref Robert Schörgenhofer blows his whistle and BATE take the first touch.

BATE have only won two of their last 20 European away games.

BATE's record in the 2017-18 competition so far: W1 D2 L2. Their victory was a 1-0 home win over Cologne on matchday three.

We are around three weeks away from a very important milestone: the one-year anniversary of BATE's last English-language tweet...

Tonight marks Giroud's 40th European outing. He has 16 goals in UEFA competitions.

Kick-off is five minutes away. A reminder of the permutations: Arsenal will finish top of the group regardless of tonight's outcome. BATE may only progress if they win in London and Red Star Belgrade hold Cologne to a draw.

Arsenal are undefeated in their last seven European group stage games at home. Their aggregate score in those games is 18-3.

BATE have won the last 11 (ELEVEN) Belarusian Premier League titles. The season finished two weeks ago and won't start again until April.

They last featured in the Champions League in 2015-16, but have never cleared the group stage in any European competition.

On Europa League matchday two, Arsenal won 4-2 at the Borisov Arena, with goals from Rob Holding, Olivier Giroud and a brace from Theo Walcott.

Eighteen-year-old forward Eddie Nketiah, who played with Chelsea's youth academy until 2015, signed a new long-term contract with the Gunners yesterday. You may remember him from his sensational first-touch goal in the EFL Cup win over Norwich last month. He earns a spot on the bench tonight.

In the interest of high-squad-number balanced reporting, Nketiah also wears 62.

BATE attacking midfielder Mikhail Gordeichuk will be wearing the number 62 tonight. If Georgian midfielder Valerian Gvilia comes off the bench, he will be wearing 80.

Down with this sort of thing.

BATE haven't played since they won the Belarusian Premier League on November 26th. They squeaked it with a thrilling 3-3 draw at Gorodeya on the final day, allowing them to finish above Dinamo Minsk on goal difference.

It's possible they won;t be quite as fresh as the Gunners.

Wilshere starts tonight, despite his terrifying foray into ice skating with his small child earlier this week.

Wenger: "You can do ice skating by bringing your child on and just making sure nothing happens to him, or [you can do] ice skating violently. I don't think he did that."

Arsenal have made a full eleven changes from the side that lost 3-1 to Manchester United last weekend. However, this may be testament to the strength of Wenger's squad: Giroud will play in front of a trio of England internationals in Welbeck, Wilshere and Walcott.

Forget MSN and BBC - Arsenal have WWW. Or, 'The Internet' as I shall now be calling them.

ARSENAL: Ospina, Debuchy, Chambers, Holding, Maitland-Niles, Elneny, Coquelin, Wilshere, Walcott, Welbeck, Giroud. Subs: Macey, Sheaf, Nelson, Reine-Adelaide, Willock, Nketiah, Akpom /// BATE BORISOV: Scherbitski, Berezkin, Ivanić, Rios, Milunović, Rodionov, Dragun, Stasevich, Polyakov, Volodko, Gordeichuk. Subs: Chichkan, Yablonski, Buljat, Signevich, Tyominen, Baga, Gvilia

We wait with BATED breath for the BATE team. In the meantime, it's interesting to see Maitland-Niles in the left-back position, while it may also be regarded as curious to start two defensive midfielders in a low-stakes game against a Belarusian side.

Arsene Wenger promised "quite an experienced team" tonight, but much of that experience has been of testing the seats in the dugout.

Walcott, Welbeck and Giroud front the Gunners' 4-3-3, while there's a rare start for Maitland-Niles in the back.

While we await the team news, a reminder of what's at stake in this final group game: Arsenal are already guaranteed top spot in Group H, BATE can only qualify if they win and the match between Red Star Belgrade and Cologne is a draw.