Key events
6 min: Saka dozes 30 yards from his own goal and has the ball taken away from him by Barcola, who should take a speculative dig from the edge of the box but pauses in the hope that a better option shows itself. A better option does not show itself. Arsenal clear their lines.
4 min: Donnarumma is thankfully fine to continue. He gets up and restarts the game.
3 min: Raya goes long down the middle. Very long. Donnarumma comes to the edge of his box to claim confidently, though he’s clattered by the extended leg of Martinelli, who was within his rights to compete for the ball. The keeper holds on, then the doctors come on to have a look at the thigh that’s kept him out for the previous three matches.
2 min: All a bit scrappy during the opening exchanges. Frantic and fast. Then Saka and Havertz threaten to get in behind PSG on the right, but the flag pops up for offside after they exchange passes.
PSG kick off. The 3,000-strong away end have their back in the noisy style.
The teams are out. Arsenal in their famous red and white, PSG in first-choice blue. A crackling atmosphere in north London, despite the rain falling with extreme prejudice. We’ll be off in a minute, once fists have been bumped, coins are tossed, and Bukayo Saka takes receipt of the best pennant.
Some great news already for Ligue 1 tonight. Brest have just won 4-0 at Red Bull Salzburg, and for a couple of hours at least, sit atop Big Table. Some story this: they’ve never even won a major domestic trophy! Rob Smyth has the details of that, plus news of Stuttgart’s 1-1 draw with Sparta Prague, as part of this evening’s Clockwatch.
Pennant watch. There’s nothing at all wrong with this …
… until you see how PSG have taken things up several notches. Poor Marquinhos getting the bum deal in the merch swap tonight.
The MegaLeague, as it stands after one round of matches. This is quite sweet, isn’t it.
Mikel Arteta speaks to Amazon Prime. “Very excited … looking forward to it … the kind of scenario we want to be involved in … [the starting team] is the right fit … a lot of quality … physicality … goal threat … everything we are looking for … [PSG coach Luis Enrique is] a very tough opponent … it’s a great test for us … we have to play with a lot of courage and determination … use the crowd … make it a very tough place to be.”
Arsenal and PSG don’t have too much in the way of shared history, but what there is between them favours the Gunners. The clubs met in the semi-finals of the European Cup Winners’ Cup back in 1994: Ian Wright and David Ginola ensured the spoils were shared 1-1 in Paris, then the much-loved Kevin Campbell scored the only goal in the second leg. Arsenal went on to beat Parma in the final. Fast forward to 2016-17 and two games in the Champions League groups: it was 1-1 in Paris again, Edinson Cavani scoring after just 44 seconds, Alexis Sánchez equalising, Marco Verratti and Olivier Giroud receiving their marching orders in added time. The match at the Emirates finished 2-2, Cavani and Giroud scoring in the correct nets, Verratti and Alex Iwobi putting through their own. Both teams went through to the knockouts, and PSG boss Unai Emery joined Arsenal the year after.
Arsenal’s starting XI – and their tweet doesn’t lie – is the same named for the 4-2 nail-biter against Leicester City three days ago. Their new midfield signing Mikel Merino has recovered from injury and is on the bench, waiting to debut for his new club. Ben White remains injured and absent.
There’s no Ousmane Dembélé for PSG. He’s in the doghouse despite scoring four times in six Ligue 1 matches so far this season. Fortunately for the Parisians, Bradley Barcola has six in six to date. Gianluigi Donnarumma returns in goal having missed the last three matches with a thigh problem.
Team news
Arsenal: Raya, Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Calafiori, Saka, Partey, Rice, Martinelli, Havertz, Trossard.
Subs: Neto, Porter, Gabriel Jesus, Kiwior, Jorginho, Merino, Sterling, Kacurri,
Lewis-Skelly, Nwaneri, Robinson, Butler-Oyedeji.
PSG: Donnarumma, Hakimi, Marquinhos, Pacho, Nuno Mendes, Zaire Emery, Vitinha, Neves, Doue, Lee, Barcola.
Subs: Safonov, Tenas, Fabian, Asensio, Muani, Mayulu, Lucas Beraldo, Skriniar, Zague, Naoufel El Hannach, Mbaye.
Referee: Slavko Vincic (Slovenia).
🔴 𝗧𝗘𝗔𝗠𝙉𝙀𝙒𝙎 ⚪️
Unchanged from Saturday’s win against Leicester City ✅
Let’s take it to the next level, Gunners 👊
— Arsenal (@Arsenal) October 1, 2024
Preamble
Arsenal could only manage a draw at Atalanta in their first game in the all-new Champions League mega-table stage. PSG by contrast are coming off the back of a 1-0 win over Girona. But with seven games still to play – and nobody really knows how this will pan out until it does – they’re hardly in must-win territory. So is this a big game or not? In strict dramatic terms, no, not really. But it’s still one of the giants of the English game against the leading team in France, and it’ll feel nice to win, so while there’s no full-blown jeopardy for either side tonight, we’re nevertheless in marker-down territory, where victory allied to an impressive performance will augur well for the long road stretching out ahead. Big game, then? Big enough! Kick-off is at 8pm BST. It’s on.
