Before PSG. Next important step to the top-level confidence
The first home Champions League is a very serious test of Arsenal's maturity and it comes easily on (so much expected by everyone) elite Tuesday evening. It also comes on the back of a highly emotional last-minute winner against Leicester. Arsenal was not
The first home Champions League is a very serious test of Arsenal's maturity and it comes easily on (so much expected by everyone) elite Tuesday evening. It also comes on the back of a highly emotional last-minute winner against Leicester.
Arsenal was not very impressive in the last Champions League season against the experienced teams. The Porto games despite Arsenal's ball domination, ended in one goals for each team after 210 minutes of football. The duel against one of the least impressive recent Bayern teams was lost in a classic "experienced favourite against exciting newbie" setup: draw for Bayern away and win at home. And apart from the result, the viewers could notice the invisible confidence of Bayern at home attacking and desperation of the Arsenal team in their search of equaliser. The overall campaign could be summed up in one main symptom: Arsenal lacks the level of confidence top European teams possess in Champions League.
But it's not criticism and it's also not surprising. Most of the players, as well as the manager, don't have the experience of these buzzing European clashes. We've all seen Arsenal's continuous growing levels of confidence in Premier League. From losing by 3-4 goals away at Etihad and Anfield, Arsenal has grown into taking 4 points from both teams in one season. That didn't happen overnight, it happened through pain, learnings, adjustments and more. And it will be similar in Champions League. Couple more clashes and Gabriel would be calmly giving the ball under pressure to the teammate instead of Sane.
That's why I don't expect today an easy game today. Even though PSG doesn't have world class players anymore, even though we are playing at home, even though we can contain Man City with ten men. Luis Enrique is a smart coach and I am pretty sure his team will setup smartly against Arsenal. They will not risk leaving too much space, they will try to neutralise Arsenal strengths - mainly the dangerous play through the wings.
Team news
Without Odegaard, Arsenal is using wingers and wing back to create opportunities. Luckily we have a very strong set on our hands - Timber and Calafiori are really pushing and creating opportunities on both sides. And Calafiori has this special chemistry with Martinelli - it seems that they enjoy each other's company. There were rumours that Calafiori had a knee injury, but luckily it got disproved. I am not sure if he's good enough to start or better to be precautioned before the week-end. Even if Riccardo and White are not fully fit to start, I would not be disappointed to see Kiwior or Tomi start as a left back. Against PSG it's not as important to have creativity from full backs, but rather the defensive safety. And both Jakub and Takehiro can provide that.
The rest of the team is probably going to look exactly the same as on Saturday. I don't think anybody else except Nwaneri has shown enough to take a starting spot in the late Champions League evening. I wouldn't expect that Arteta will throw Ethan into the tough mix from the start, although I think he's fully ready for that. Not a single time he looked out of place on the pitch, including the final minutes of a North London Derby. And he will certainly be the first name on the bench to look for to add a new creativity flavour to our team if needed. I also believe that he absolutely definitely should start against Southampton. We have enough quality in the team to strengthen the squad up during the game if needed, but such experience would be vital not only to Nwaneri's development, but also to Arsenal, considerably how packed might be the season ahead.
It also could be exciting to see Mikel Merino on the bench after he was apparent let out of the cage last week. I don't think he should play for more than 15 minutes, but mere presence with the team could be exciting. I personally think there would be goals from both sides, we just need to score a bit more!