Here we go again folks – match day!

This is a big one because it’s PSG at home and I think I’m right in saying it is the first time we’ve faced PSG since they became one of the financially doped football clubs backed by an Arab state.

We welcome them tonight for an 8pm kick off and this is stacking up to be an interesting one, because they are missing a few players and compared to the Galaticos-esque side that they tried to build out three years ago with Messi, Neymar and Mbappe, this PSG side has been designed with buy-in from Luis Enrique and aimed to be built around one or two players like Dembele and Zaire-Emery, with other players like Barcola filling Mbappe’s void. Last season Mbappe was basically their main man who got the goals, delivered super-elite end product and whilst Barcola is a really good footballer, it isn’t the same as the now Real Madrid-based Frenchman.

Along with Barcola, this new-look PSG side has Joao Neves, who was linked with a few English clubs over the summer by signed for the Parisiens instead and he’ll take up the left eight spot tonight with Zaire-Emery taking the right, to try to provide the creative spark for the front three. The battle between their midfield and ours will therefore be quite interesting, I’m sure, because I think Arteta goes with Rice, Havertz in the eight’s, but it is whether he prefers Partey or Jorginho in the holding six role. For me I’d go Jorginho; we want to retain the ball and keep it ticking over, but Partey playing as regularly as he is feels like we’re playing a dangerous game; his ability to stay fit has basically been a concern since he arrived from Atletico Madrid and so giving him some time from the bench and seeing whether Jorginho can ensure we keep hold of the ball and move PSG around a bit more, feels like the way forward tonight.

Whether Arteta rotates any more will be interesting too, because with Southampton at the weekend you’d expect that’s a game where he’d be more happy to see a little more rotation of players at home compared to tonight, so I’m wondering if the team looks a little like this:

Raya

Timber   –   Saliba   –   Gabriel   –   Calafiori

Jorginho

Havertz   –   Rice

Saka   –   Trossard   –   Martinelli

I just have a feeling he’ll go similar to the weekend for the team, then look at Southampton at maybe giving players like Nwaneri, maybe Merino (who was pictured back in training yesterday), perhaps even Sterling a start. The up side is that we’re playing earlier in the midweek, which means you’ve got three solid days of training and recuperation after the game tonight if you want to keep players in. I’ve also gone with Calafiori because there was some noises from the press that he trained yesterday so if he’s ok then I suspect he’ll start. With Tomiyasu still not 100% and having not played yet this season, Zinchenko still out and a question mark over White, I think Arteta might want to gamble with Calafiori rather than give Lewis-Skelly a start in a game like this – despite his impressive showing against Bolton.

That doesn’t mean we won’t see other players tonight if this is the starting XI though; Arteta will be mindful of making sure we share minutes with the volume of games this early in the season and so I wonder if Merino might get five or ten minutes at the end if he can make the match day squad, or perhaps depending on the score Nwaneri or Lewis-Skelly get on the pitch. Against City Lewis-Skelly came on towards the end of the game and although it was late, he did a pretty decent enough job for the few minutes he was on the pitch. We’ve also brought the likes of Sterling in to the club just for night’s like tonight i.e. to maybe take 20 minutes off Saka at the end to keep him fresh, so I think we’ll see a fair bit of substitutions and squad rotation off the bench tonight.

This new Champions League format means that there’s an element of the unknown in terms of what you need to do to get in to that top eight, but what it does feel like you need to do is win those home games. The draw away in Atalanta was fine, but you can’t go to many matches in this format without picking up points, so this needs to be one that Arteta earmarks as a big match in terms of our fixtures. If you need to pick up around 13 – 15 points to make sure you qualify (I’m making that assumption based on the old adage that 10 points from six games used to be the benchmark and with two extra games you probably need an extra win on top to secure a spot), you need to be winning at least three of your home games and probably one of your away games, as well as a draw. A win tonight for The Arsenal and then we have Shaktar at home, Monaco at home, Zagreb at home and if you win all of those home matches that’s your 13 points right there. So tonight feels like a game that, if we win, we’re in a really good position to kick on for this campaign. Lose or draw and the nerves just start to build a little bit.

Tonight will be interesting to see just how attacking PSG go against us. We’re used to playing low block sides in the league more often than not but the star to our season has meant more teams looking to come at us which, as a result, has meant there’s been a little more space and the matches have been a bit more open. If PSG are open tonight then the likes of Havertz, Trossard, Saka and Martinelli need to build on their good performances and bag some goals. PSG are without Dembele, they’ll be missing Luis Hernandez, but they will still have a strong side, with Donnarumma coming back in, Hakimi a quality full back, plus the likes of Asensio replacing Demebele and maybe even French international Kolo Muani up top. But with where we are at the moment and the way we are playing, you’d have to fancy us to lay down a marker tonight – it feels like a high-enough profile game to do it.

I’ll be there this evening with my ol’ mate Albert. James might do a post-game pod but I’ll be making my way back so I’ll be on the Same Old Arsenal pod on Sunday morning post Southampton, with a post match review on here tomorrow morning. Until then, have yourselves a good one.