Atletico Madrid visit the Emirates this evening for Match Day 3 of the Champions League League Phase (I still hate having to write that). This should be a match for the defensive purists. Arsenal have
the best defense in Europe. Atleti have a well-established and well-earned reputation for being pugnacious, defensive stalwarts. It’ll be a physical (perhaps nasty), structured battle. Or the football gods will laugh in our faces and give us a goal-fest. They love to do that, after all.
Atleti could do with a win. They opened their CL campaign with a 3-2 loss at Anfield on a late Liverpool goal. They smashed Eintracht Frankfurt 5-1 on MD2. Arsenal are 2-0, with a pair of 2-0 wins over Athletic Bilbao and Olympiacos. I’d say the pressure is on the Gunners more than Atleti, though. Mikel Arteta’s side are at home with matches against Bayern and Inter still to come later in the League Phase. I don’t think you can count on either of those matches to be wins. You’d like to win one or both. But if you take those out, you have Atleti today and three more matches to get Arsenal from the two wins they have to the five they’ll need. For the record, I’d bet on Arsenal even if they put themselves in a tough spot, but you’d rather they avoid that altogether. Beating Atleti would go a long way towards that. Winning at home is really important!
Fun fact: Diego Simeone and Mikel Arteta are the 2nd and 4th-longest tenured managers in top 5 league football at 13 years and nearly 6 years, respectively. Frank Schmidt, who has been in charge of Heidenheim for 17 years, is 1st on that list, and Pep Guardiola’s 9 years at City puts him 3rd.
Arsenal welcome Piero Hincapie back to the matchday squad. He’ll join Ben White, who had missed some training but was on the bench at Fulham, as a potential substitute today. Kai Havertz is out with his knee problem but expected back relatively soon and ahead of schedule. Martin Ødegaard is set to return sometime after the November international break but admitted in his program notes that setting a return date might be a bit tricky. Gabriel Jesus is still out until mid- to late-December at the earliest, and with rumors linking him to a move back to Brazil, it isn’t out of the realm of possibility that we won’t see him in an Arsenal shirt again.
Atleti’s only injury is American midfielder Johnny Cardoso, who misses out with an ankle injury suffered against Liverpool.
Arsenal – Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Lewis-Skelly, Zubimendi, Rice, Eze, Saka, Martinelli, Gyokeres
Atleti – Oblak, Llorente, Gimenez, Le Normand, Hancko, Guiliano, Barrios, Koke, Gonzalez, Sorloth, Alvarez
Mikel Arteta opting for Myles Lewis-Skelly over Riccardo Calafiori, if that’s a tactical switch rather than a rotation / health one, suggests to me that he knows Arsenal will have more of the ball. Combine MLS with Zubimendi, Rice, and Eze in the midfield and it looks like an acknowledgment that the Gunners will need to progress through a mid-block then break down a lower one.
WHO: Arsenal vs Atlético Madrid
WHAT: Champions League league phase MD3
WHERE: The Emirates Stadium, London
WHEN: Tuesday, October 21st, 12:00 pm PT | 3:00 pm ET | 8:00 pm BST
HOW TO WATCH: Streaming on the Paramount+ (US) and Amazon Prime Video (UK) apps
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