Arsenal vs PSG LIVE: Champions League team news, line-ups and more tonight as Gunners unchanged
The Gunners are looking to pick up their first win of the new European campaign after a draw against Atalanta two weeks ago
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Arsenal host Paris Saint-Germain at the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday evening in their second match of the 2024/25 Champions League campaign.
The Gunners come into the match in fine form, sitting third in the Premier League just one point off the top, though they laboured to a 0-0 draw against Atalanta in Bergamo in their first match of this competition’s new format.
Mikel Arteta’s side face their first big European test as they play French champions PSG, who once again sit top of Ligue 1 after five wins in their opening six matches.
The Parisian side also struggled in their first European match though, requiring a 90th-minute own goal to sneak past Spanish side Girona at home.
Follow all the latest Champions League updates below and see match predictions here:
Luis Enrique on Arsenal:
“I think Arsenal are one of the best teams in Europe at the moment. ‘With the ball they are a team very close to the top European level and without the ball they are also very good.
“I would even say that they are one of the best teams in the world without the ball. They are a team with a real identity. We are similar but also have different styles of play.”
Martin Keown accuses old enemy Ruud van Nistelrooy of waiting for Manchester United to sack Erik ten Hag
Martin Keown has accused his old enemy Ruud van Nistelrooy of waiting in the wings for Manchester United to sack Erik ten Hag.
Ten Hag is coming under increasing pressure as the manager at Old Trafford after a poor start to the season, underlined by the weekend’s 3-0 thrashing at the hands of Tottenham Hotspur.
Van Nistelrooy, who was brought in by fellow Dutchman Ten Hag as an assistant coach over the summer, has been reported as a possible interim solution to take charge of the team should the club move to sack the manager.
Keown accuses old foe Van Nistelrooy of waiting for Man Utd to sack Ten Hag
Ten Hag is under pressure to turn around United’s dismal start to the season and Keown has questioned the motives of assistant coach Van Nistelrooy
Arsenal back in the top flight
This is Arsenal’s 21st Champions League campaign – second only to Manchester United’s 25 among English clubs – but only their second in the last eight seasons.
The 2016/17 season had been their 19th in a row, all under Arsene Wenger.
The Gunners finished first in Group B last season, ahead of PSV Eindhoven, Lens and Sevilla, having won four of their six games. They then edged past Porto in their first round of 16 success since 2009/10 but lost out to Bayern Munich in the quarter-finals.
However, Arsenal have won 11 of their last 15 home European matches, losing only one.
‘They are really tough’ says Arteta
Mikel Arteta added: “They are really tough. They dominate every phase of play and they have very clear intentions.
“When they don’t have the ball they want it straight back and they swarm you. That’s Luis [Enrique]. Wherever he goes he plays in the same way.”
Mikel Arteta on facing PSG
The Arsenal coach said: “Everybody is looking forward to this. The format is a bit different this season, and the opposition we’re facing is probably at the highest level in European football. It’s a great opportunity.”
Arsenal and Man City’s heated rivalry has just reached a new level of tension
Mikel Arteta eventually felt he had to speak, specifically in order to quieten things down. You couldn’t have a clearer indication of how the Manchester City-Arsenal tensions had reached a peak, after all, than Pep Guardiola himself willingly bringing up the “115 charges”.
Some City officials had previously bristled at the media or anyone else mentioning the prospect of the club being punished, and yet here was their most important football figure putting it front and centre of the week’s biggest story.
That showed how affected Guardiola had been by Arteta’s admittedly open-ended comments from Tuesday. The Arsenal manager had spoken about how he has “all the information” on City, having worked at the club for almost four years. Arteta was actually talking about gamesmanship, given all the criticism of his own team over “dark arts”, but the way it was said could have easily been portrayed as talking about the hearing.
Guardiola evidently felt that way.
Arsenal and Man City’s heated rivalry has just reached a new level of tension
Mikel Arteta attempted to cool down the temperature after Pep Guardiola’s comments about the rivalry, but there is certain to be more noise as the title race heats up
Arsenal team changes
Mikel Arteta has named an unchanged line-up to the Arsenal team that defeated Leicester City at the weekend. Riccardo Calafiori starts at left-back with Jurrien Timber favoured on the right hand side.
Leandro Trossard starts up top and Gabriel Martinelli is the first choice on the left wing.
Can this line-up defeat Paris Saint-Germain tonight? Kick off is a touch over an hour away.
Arsenal vs PSG line-ups
Arsenal XI: Raya; Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Calafiori; Rice, Partey; Saka, Havertz, Martinelli; Trossard
PSG XI: Donnarumma; Hakimi, Marquinhos, Pacho, Nuno Mendes; Zaire-Emery, Vitinha, Joao Neves; Doue, Lee Kang-In, Barcola
Arteta on Ronaldinho
When speaking about his time playing for PSG, Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta revealed that he used to share a room with Brazilian great Ronaldinho.
“We were roommates for a year-and-a-half,” said Arteta of the player widely considered to be among the best of all time. “He was great, so much energy and so much fun.
“He was a huge talent. He’s the only player that I have seen in history that could transform, by himself, two clubs. He did it in Paris, he transformed them. He went to Barcelona in one of their worst moments and transformed them too.
“He had an aura, an energy, a smile on his face. It was impossible to be next to him and be in a bad mood. And I had never seen a talent like it. In training, in every drill, it was like, ‘How is this possible?’ It was unbelievable to play with him.”
PSG ‘protected me like a son’, says Arteta
Mikel Arteta said Paris St Germain “protected him like a son” on the eve of his reunion with the side which handed him his professional debut.
Arteta was just a teenager when he was sent by Barcelona to the French club on loan, and on Tuesday night he will welcome them to the Emirates for the opening home clash of Arsenal’s Champions League campaign, with Luis Enrique – his former Barcelona team-mate – in the opposing dugout.
“We were in Barcelona when we got the phone call that ‘you need to pack your bags and fly to Paris, now,’” said Arteta of his move to PSG in 2001.
“I was 18 years old, had not played any professional football and you look at those names at the club and you think, ‘are they sure?’ But you get there and Luis Fernandez was the manager and he was the one that believed in me.
“That is what you need, someone to give you the chance and to be surrounded by the right individuals, that I was very lucky to have.
“They protected me like a son. It was the perfect environment for me, to give me the chance, to see what I was capable of doing. It was an amazing experience. I wanted to stay there but I was owned by Barcelona and they couldn’t find an agreement.”
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