Preview: Arsenal v PSG | Pre-Match Report | News

Champions League football returns to Emirates Stadium for the first time this season on Tuesday night (8pm UK) with a huge glamour tie as Paris Saint-Germain cross the Channel.

We put our 14-game unbeaten run on the line against the club Mikel Arteta made his professional debut with, and a manager in Luis Enrique whom he featured alongside as a youngster at Barcelona, but all niceties will be put to one side as we aim to record a huge win to follow up our draw at Atalanta a fortnight ago.

PSG have not been the best European travellers in recent years, and as well as not winning any of their last three games in England, they have never managed to record a victory at our expense. Arteta will be hoping that streak continues to create another memorable Champions League night in N5.

Parisians’ unbeaten start

Four wins and 16 goals from the opening four games in Ligue 1 was a perfect start for the three-time defending champions, however, a 1-1 draw at Reims followed their Champions League opener, when a last-minute own goal by ex-Spurs keeper Paulo Gazzaniga saw them labour to a fortunate 1-0 home win against Girona.

Friday night saw them beat Rennes at the Parc des Princes 3-1 to ensure they remained top of the table ahead of Monaco on goal difference, with Bradley Barcola helping himself to a brace and moving to six goals in his six league outings this term.

Away form has been an issue for PSG in European football’s premier competition, winning just twice in their last seven road trips, and not keeping a clean sheet in any of their last 19 stretching back to October 2020. Despite this, they still reached the final four last term before losing to Borussia Dortmund home and away.

What the managers say

Arteta: “We're looking forward to it. These are the kind of nights that we want to experience and want to have against an unbelievable opponent. [PSG] are exceptional. They have a very clear intention of how they want to dominate the game through the ball and when they don’t have it, they want it straight back.

“We know after the draw in Atalanta, with the number of games we have left still, it’s going to be really important. Nothing is going to be decided tomorrow.”

Enrique: "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."

Team news

Riccardo Calafiori picked up an issue in the latter stages of the Leicester win and will be assessed, alongside Ben White who missed the game with a knee problem.

Martin Odegaard, Mikel Merino, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Kieran Tierney will all remain unavailable with their respective injuries.

The headline news for PSG is that Ousmane Dembele has not travelled with the squad following a disagreement with Enrique following the Rennes game, adding to the Spanish boss’ headaches.

He has been able to call upon Gianluigi Donnarumma though after the Italy number one missed the last four matches with a muscular issue. Marco Asensio is also back after a two-game absence with a thigh problem, while Desire Doue and Vitinha have shrugged off ankle injuries and Nuno Mendes has recovered from a virus.

Goncalo Ramos (ankle), Lucas Hernandez (ACL), and Presnel Kimpembe (Achilles) are all long-term casualties and also haven’t made the trip.

Talking tactics

Adrian Clarke, writing in the official matchday programme: Enrique is a huge fan of 4-3-3 with a false nine. His front three have the freedom to interchange, and when his wide forwards opt to drift inside, full-backs Nuno Mendes and Achraf Hakimi are encouraged to overlap at will.

PSG look to build from the back patiently and keep possession for long periods. During their run to last season’s semi-finals, the Parisians averaged 64.7% possession, second only to Manchester City.

Enrique is not obsessed with always having possession, as PSG already lead the domestic rankings with shots from fast breaks. Barcola and Randal Kolo Muani are excellent at running with the ball, so we must be ready to deal with a string of testing 1v1s.

Out of possession the French giants will look to press, often in a man-to-man set-up. Teenager Joao Neves [above] is busy making an impact alongside the likes of Fabian Ruiz, Vitinha and Warren Zaire-Emery in a well-organised and abrasive engine room.

Facts and stats

We didn’t concede a single home goal in the group stage of last season’s Champions League (the only team to do so). We’re looking to start a Champions League campaign with back-to-back clean sheets for the first time since 2007/08.

PSG have lost six of their last nine Champions League games against English opposition, including each of their last three. Their 4-1 defeat at Newcastle United last term was their heaviest away defeat to an English opponent.

Only three players have played for both us and Paris SG in the Champions League, with Arteta being one of those along with Nicolas Anelka and Lassana Diarra.

The last PSG player to score in the Champions League was Kylian Mbappe on April 16, with the French side attempting 71 shots without scoring in the competition since then. Indeed, they’ve only landed 14 of those 71 shots on target, but have hit the woodwork on four occasions.

Bukayo Saka has been directly involved in seven goals in five Champions League appearances at Emirates Stadium (four goals and three assists) - the most combined goals and assists by an Arsenal player through his first five home matches in the competition.

Leandro Trossard scored in all four of his home appearances for us in the Champions League last season. Only Roy Makaay for Bayern Munich (September 2004) has scored in each of his first five home appearances for a specific club in the competition.

Match officials

Slovenian referee Slavko Vincic has been handed control of this game, which will be the second time he has appeared at Emirates Stadium, with the last seeing us draw 0-0 against Villarreal in the second leg of the Europa League semi-final in 2021.

The highly-respected official was the man in the middle for last season’s Champions League final between Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund at Wembley, and was at the last two European Championships and the 2022 World Cup.

Referee: Slavko Vincic (SLN)
Assistants: Tomaz Klancnik, Andraz Kovacic (SLN)
Fourth official: Rade Obrenovic (SLN)
VAR: Nejc Kajtazovic (SLN)
Assistant VAR: Tomasz Kwiatkowski (POL)

Previous meetings

We are unbeaten in our four meetings with PSG. Indeed, the French side have played more games against us without winning than against any other opponent in European competition.

Our first meeting came in the 1993/94 European Cup Winners Cup semi-final. A 1-1 draw in France was followed by a 1-0 home success with the late Kevin Campbell grabbing the crucial goal to book our spot in the final, when we beat Parma to lift the silverware.

There were also a pair of draws in the 2016/17 Champions League group stage when Unai Emery was PSG boss. Alexis Sanchez cancelled out a first-minute Edison Cavani strike and Verratti and Olivier Giroud were dismissed late on in the French capital, but the pair grabbed our goals in another entertaining affair in N5 when Cavani had again opened the scoring, but another own goal, this time from Alex Iwobi, saw the spoils shared again.

How to watch

The squad will be discussing who has the best fashion sense in the Question of the Day, while, before live commentary comes from Dan Roebuck and our legend Nigel Winterburn. Make sure you tune in for the best pre-match build-up!

You can also find out which broadcasters are showing the action live, wherever you are in the world.