Paris Saint-Germain v Arsenal: Champions League Preview & Prediction

Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal travel to the Parc des Princes to face a Paris Saint-Germain side that is still adapting to life without Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

The Gunners have made a good start to the Premier League season, but needed a last minute penalty from Santi Cazorla to defeat Southampton on Saturday.

Wenger’s side will be looking to improve on their record in the Champions League in recent years – which has seen the Gunners drop out of the competition in the early knockout rounds.

FC Barcelona beat Arsenal 5-1 on aggregate in the last-16 last season, but with a fairly easy group on paper, Wenger will be confident of at least advancing to the same stage this term.

Paris Saint-Germain will be a big test, though. Unai Emery, who won the Europa League with Sevilla in each of the last three seasons, took over from Laurent Blanc in the summer and he has overseen lots of transfer activity over the summer.

Ibrahimovic departed for Manchester United following the expiration of his contract, while David Luiz completed a £30m move back to Chelsea on transfer deadline day. Meanwhile, former Newcastle United winger Hatem Ben Arfa and Jese Rodriguez are just two names to have made the move to the French capital.

Both sides go into their opening Champions League group stage clash with identical records – two wins, one draw and one defeat. Arsenal suffered an opening day defeat at the Emirates Stadium for a second consecutive season, as Liverpool followed West Ham United’s example from last season.

However, their form has picked up since with a goalless draw at champions Leicester City and wins over Watford and Southampton.

Conversely, PSG started the season brightly as they claimed the Trophée des Champions with a 4-1 win over Lyon last month.

They followed that up with wins over Bastia and Metz to get their Ligue 1 campaign off to a good start. But a defeat at Monaco and a 1-1 draw at home to Saint Etienne means Emery’s side do not go into this fixture in particularly good form.

New PSG boss Emery – Photo: Simon Stacpoole / Offside.

Team News:

Laurent Koscielny should be fit for the trip to Paris despite suffering a facial injury in the win over Southampton on Saturday.

The France international defender trained on Monday and is likely to be partnered with new signing Shkodran Mustafi at the heart of Arsenal’s defence.

Fellow central defenders Per Mertesacker and Gabriel remain long-term absentees through injury, whilst striker Olivier Giroud is pushing for his first start of the season at the Parc des Princes.

Aaron Ramsey will not travel to the French capital due to ongoing concerns over a hamstring problem. Ramsey has been injured since suffering the injury in the opening day loss to Liverpool, and trained separately from the rest of the squad on Monday.

Thiago Silva will not feature for PSG due to a hip injury he suffered during pre-season.

League Positions: Paris Saint-Germain – 7th (7 pts); Arsenal – 6th (7 pts)
Last Meeting: Arsenal 1-0 Paris Saint-Germain – (April 12, 1994 – European Cup Winners’ Cup)
Form: Paris Saint-Germain – WWWWLD; Arsenal – WWLDWW
Key Men: Paris Saint-Germain – Edinson Cavani; Arsenal – Alexis Sanchez
Shoot Says: Paris Saint-Germain 1-2 Arsenal