Champions League: Gunners Go Dutch

PSV Eindhoven vs Arsenal

Arsenal and PSV Eindhoven are set to meet in a Champions League dead rubber on Tuesday, but it’s a game neither team will be keen to lose. 

The Gunners have gone through to the knockout phase, confirmed at Group B winners with PSV joining them in second after winning 3-2 away to Sevilla last time out. But Arsenal are smarting after losing 1-0 to Aston Villa on Saturday and, in a hugely competitive Premier League they can afford no signs of prolonged weakness.  

Mikel Arteta cut a frustrated figure in the stands at Villa Park, and his team will be fired up for the visit to the Netherlands. Meanwhile, PSV head coach Peter Bosz will have no need to remind his players how important this game is after they were humbled by the Gunners in a 4-0 rout at the Emirates in the return game.

Talking Points

Hosts PSV are brimming with confidence

That humiliation in north London was a rare setback for Eindhoven in a season where they are thriving in Europe while blowing away the competition in their domestic league. PSV have reached eight points in Group B and can still be caught by Lens, but with a superior head-to-head record over the French, they can already book their tickets for the knockouts. 

And Eindhoven are ten points clear at the top of the Eredivisie, making it 15 wins from 15 matches with a 2-0 triumph over Heerenveen last week. Guus Til scored his seventh goal of the league campaign and Ricardo Pepi added a second as PSV maintained their double digit lead at the top.     

There’s a feel-good factor in Eindhoven at the moment. Winger Hirving Lozano, a Mexico star with 18 goals from 68 games for his country, is a PSV legend too, scoring 34 goals in 60 games in his first stint at the club between 2017 and 2019 and winning a league title medal. After winning the Scudetto with Napoli last season, he returned to Eindhoven in September to a hero’s welcome.

Lozano is sidelined for this one, and 20-year-old Pepi might keep his place, alongside the experienced Luuk de Jong, who has two goals in the competition and is the third top scorer in the Dutch top flight with ten.

This is a team that is playing with no fear, and it has an incentive to show Arsenal who’s boss in the Netherlands.

Arteta may choose to rest key players

Aston Villa away was a tough warm up for this sixth European match of the year for the Gunners. Arsenal had plenty of chances to win at Villa Park but a John McGinn strike gave the upwardly mobile Villains all three points as Arsenal’s Kai Havertz had a late goal ruled out for handball.

Arteta might be tempted to rest one or two of his key players. Striker Gabriel Jesus has scored four in the competition while Bukayo Saka has dominated the Champions League 2023 highlightsfor Arsenal.

With three goals and four assists the 22 year old winger is the Gunners’ most dangerous player in this competition and he scored the crucial second goal in Arsenal’s clash with Sevilla in November, a 2-0 win which put them in charge of Group B.  

I can see both Jesus and Saka taking a breather and that may open the door for Eddie Nketiah and Leandro Trossard to start.

The latest Champions League 2023 betting odds make Arsenal the fourth favourites to win the 2024 crown at a SBOTOP price of 8.00 and, if they are to go all the way, Arteta will need to use his squad. 

History

Eindhoven have a rich history of football in the Netherlands as one of the nation’s most admired clubs, winning the Eredivisie 24 times and the KNVP Cup 11 times. And they were on the list of European Cup and Champions League winners as kings of Europe in 1988.

Arsenal are 13 times English top flight winners and 14 times FA Cup champions, but their only European success was a Cup Winners Cup triumph in 1994, though they came close to Champions League success in 2006 when they finished runners-up to Barcelona.

In terms of head-to-head encounters, Arsenal have won three to PSV’s two, and there have been three draws. The Gunners have a huge psychological advantage after beating Bosz’s lads 4-0 in September.

Both teams have won five from six in all competitions.    

Betting Tip

Not since their 2006 Champions League campaign have the Gunners won five of their group matches, and that is a nice incentive for the visitors on Tuesday, and they are priced at 2.54.

PSV are at 2.30, and arguably they have even bigger motivation. I suspect these two in-form sides will cancel each other out.  

 

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