In the darkest depths of our Europa League years, I would cast envious glances at Tuesday and Wednesday nights, wondering if we would ever see Europe’s best at the Emirates again.
It felt hopeless watching the likes of Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Juventus contesting marquee ties at iconic stadiums while we plodded around BATE Borisov, Vorskla and Qarabag FK, travelling thousands of miles for glorified friendlies.
Nights like tonight felt eons away.
And yet, here we are, preparing to welcome one of Europe’s elite to north London again, a chance to pit our wits and test our mettle against a top quality side, a side that – with all due respect to Leicester – won’t crumble under pressure.
It’s great to see the Champions League back for a new season and exciting that, even at this early stage of the competition, we get a chance to contest such a big tie.
PSG need little introduction. Whatever you think of their ascendancy, they have become an elite side with a domestic trophy cabinet stuffed full of everything there is to win. Though they haven’t been able to replicate that success in Europe, it would be foolish to take them anything other than extremely seriously, and we know Mikel Arteta will.
The biggest question ahead of kick-off tonight will be around team selection and whether the manager will chance the re-introduction of Mikel Merino and Takehiro Tomiyasu into the squad.
Both the Spaniard and the Japanese were picture training with the squad at London Colney on Monday and, clearly, are not too far away from returning to action. The question is, how far away?
Amazing though it would be to see Merino for the first time in Arsenal colours, I think the manager will err on the side of caution, and I think the same applies to Tomiyasu too.
There is an (another) international break right around the corner and it would seem wiser to keep a close eye on both players for another few weeks at least to make sure the progress they have made isn’t sacrificed on the altar of haste.
Even without Odegaard, the side we have put out for the last three weeks has been adaptable and shown itself capable of doing what the manager has asked. Shuffling Kai Havertz around the midfield hasn’t been ideal, admittedly, but I think the rewards will be greater if we can make that work for just a little longer.
That is all notwithstanding that the manager has some plans of his own, however. Luis Enrique, the PSG boss, is an elite manager and master tactician – he will have studied how we’ve lined up closely and will have plans. Does Mikel throw a curve ball into the mix to upset his opponents or does he persist with his own plan, throwing down the gauntlet to PSG?
Clearly, it’s going to be an intriguing game and I expect plenty of goals. This isn’t some far flung tie in the corner of Latvia, of course, but I think these are two sides that will look to be progressive and aggressive where they can. The implications of different results in this new league format have yet to play out but I expect until they do, teams will look to pick up points home and away with equal gusto. I can’t see there being an advantage to playing conservatively on the road.
However we approach it, it feels certain to be a brilliant tie and a huge opportunity to test ourselves. If we want to make serious progress in the competition this year, PSG are the sort of side we need to be competitive against, the sort of side we need to be mixing it with and testing.
Bayern Munich was an excellent test for us last yet but we lacked a little control, a little experience and the ruthlessness to needed to kill off an wounded opponent. Let’s see what we’ve learnt this time around.
We’ve been waiting for nights like these.
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