Arsenal and PSV Eindhoven are back in the UEFA Champions League and hoping to make up for lost time. Look ahead to their meeting with our Arsenal vs PSV Eindhoven prediction and preview.
Arsenal vs PSV Eindhoven: The Quick Hits
- The Opta supercomputer suggests Arsenal will have a successful return to the UEFA Champions League, giving them a 67.4% chance of victory against PSV at the Emirates Stadium.
- Gilberto Silva scored the (then) quickest goal in Champions League history (20 seconds) the first time these sides met in the competition.
- PSV’s Luuk de Jong has scored nine goals in his last eight games in all competitions, only failing to net in one of those matches.
Match Preview
This match marks the return to the UEFA Champions League of both Arsenal and PSV Eindhoven after significant absences from Europe’s elite competition.
Arsenal attack the Champions League for the first time since a 10-2 aggregate humbling at the hands of Carlo Ancelotti’s Bayern Munich in the last 16 of the 2016-17 tournament. A lot has changed in that time, with Arsène Wenger leaving the club, Unai Emery’s failure to bring European success confirmed by a humiliating 4-1 defeat to Chelsea in the 2019 Europa League final, and, after lots of changes at boardroom level, Mikel Arteta’s appointment and subsequent drive to bring Arsenal back to the top of the domestic and European game.
PSV are also back in the big time after a four-season absence. They have had six different head coaches in that period including caretakers, with four runners-up finishes and one abandoned season in the Eredivisie since their last appearance in the Champions League. Having suffered three eliminations in the qualifiers over that period, the Dutch side saw off Rangers in August to reach the group stage once again.
This will be PSV’s 17th appearance in the competition, while Arsenal enjoyed 19 consecutive seasons in the Champions League from 1998 to 2017. Both teams will feel their returns to Europe’s top table are long overdue; Bukayo Saka hadn’t even sat his GCSE exams the last time the Gunners were in this competition. He got four A* and three A grades, so he was a star boy in the classroom some time before he became one on the football pitch.
But for all of Arsenal’s history in the Champions League, only Olympiakos (20) have played in more seasons of the competition without winning it than Arsenal. This campaign, they go level with the Greek side with their 20th qualification.
Highlighting the wholesale changes that have occurred at Arsenal since 2017, there will be no survivors in the lineup from their last outing in Europe’s premier tournament, while Luuk de Jong is the only PSV player who participated in their last game in the competition in 2018-19.
Arsenal will be looking to the experience of Gabriel Jesus, who has netted 20 goals in the competition in 38 appearances. They also have Kai Havertz, who won the competition with Chelsea in 2021 and scored the winning goal in the final against Manchester City.
PSV will be relying on striker De Jong, who has fond memories of facing north London opposition; he’s scored more goals against Tottenham than any other team he’s played in the Champions League (two). He did, however, fail to net a Premier League goal in his brief stint with Newcastle United.
Arsenal and PSV met as recently as last season in the Europa League group stage, winning one game apiece. Both clubs reached the knockouts, but PSV were eliminated by eventual winners Sevilla, who also join these two teams in Champions League Group B this season, while Arsenal were knocked out on penalties by Sporting CP in the last 16.
It’s likely to be a tight affair. Arsenal netted four goals in the first-ever meeting between the two sides, but in the last seven matches between the clubs there have been just nine goals scored.
PSV have started the season in impressive style. Peter Bosz has seen his team win eight and draw one of their opening nine matches in all competitions. The Gunners have struggled to find their fluency yet but have still taken 13 points from their opening five Premier League games.
In what is sure to be a tight group with Sevilla and Lens providing testing opposition, it is imperative to get off to a good start for both sides. Arsenal won’t thank the Premier League for moving their game with Everton from Saturday to Sunday after the Champions League draw, and with a north London derby coming up this weekend, they’ll need to ensure they aren’t distracted if they’re to get the three points. PSV might see this as the hardest of their group matches, but the English side’s susceptibility to conceding at home will encourage their opponents to think they can earn something from the game.
Arsenal vs PSV Eindhoven Head to Head
Arsenal home matches against PSV have traditionally been low-scoring affairs. There have been just four goals in four games between the two sides in north London.
The teams have been drawn against each other three times in the Champions League before. Arsenal won one and drew one of the meetings in both the 2002-03 and 2004-05 group stages, while PSV ended the Gunners’ interest in the competition in the last 16 in 2006-07 after winning at home and drawing at the Emirates.
The two teams also tussled in the UEFA Europa League last season. The Eredivisie side were beaten 1-0 at the Emirates but got their revenge a week later when they triumphed 2-0 in the reverse fixture.
PSV were the only side to beat Arsenal in last season’s Europa League with that victory. They’ve won none of their four previous visits to the Gunners in all competitions (D2 L2).
Nevertheless, Arsenal have only scored three goals in four home matches against PSV in European competition, and two of those were own goals by Alex, playing for PSV.
Recent Form
Arsenal have only kept two clean sheets in their last 15 matches at the Emirates Stadium in all competitions, but have shipped just one in their last five European matches on home soil.
PSV have failed to record a shutout in any of their last eight European matches away from home, including qualifiers, but their last one did come in England against Leicester City in the 2021-22 UEFA Europa Conference League.
Arsenal ought to be wary about PSV’s goalscoring prowess, as the Eredivisie side scored 14 goals in their four Champions League qualifying matches this season.
Though, Arsenal aren’t bad themselves; they’ve only failed to score in one of their last 15 matches in all competitions at the Emirates, and there have been 61 netted in that series of games.
Opta Power Rankings
The Opta Power Rankings are a global team ranking system that assigns an ability score to over 13,000 domestic football teams on a scale between zero and 100, where zero is the worst-ranked team in the world and 100 is the best team in the world.
Ahead of kick-off, here are the Opta Power Rankings for both sides:
Arsenal vs PSV Eindhoven Prediction
The Opta supercomputer seems fairly sure Arsenal will start with a home win to get their Champions League group campaign up and running. Mikel Arteta’s men are given a 67.4% chance of securing three points.
PSV are not to be underestimated, having eliminated Rangers in the play-off round, but they are judged to have only a 13.4% likelihood of taking all of the points back to the Netherlands. The draw has a 19.2% possibility, according to the supercomputer.
Arsenal vs PSV Eindhoven UCL Squads
Arsenal: Aaron Ramsdale, David Raya, James Hillson, William Saliba, Ben White, Gabriel Magalhães, Jakub Kiwior, Cédric Soares, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Lino Sousa, Thomas Partey, Martin Ødegaard, Leandro Trossard, Jorginho, Fábio Vieira, Mohamed Elneny, Kai Havertz, Declan Rice, Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Jesus, Emile Smith Rowe, Gabriel Martinelli, Eddie Nketiah, Reiss Nelson.
Head Coach: Mikel Arteta.
PSV Eindhoven: Walter Benítez, Joël Drommel, Boy Waterman, Shurandy Sambo, Jordan Teze, Armando Obispo, André Ramalho, Armel Bella-Kotchap, Sergiño Dest, Mauro Júnior, Olivier Boscagli, Patrick van Aanholt, Malik Tillman, Guus Til, Jerdy Schouten, Joey Veerman, Tygo Land, Dantaye Gilbert, Noa Lang, Luuk de Jong, Ricardo Pepi, Hirving Lozano, Yorbe Vertessen, Ismael Saibari, Tay Abed.
Head Coach: Peter Bosz.
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