UEFA Champions League final — How can Arsenal upset their chances of beating PSG?

Best attack versus best defense – While that’s an overly simplistic way to look at Saturday’s Champions League final between Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal, it pretty much sums up the clash of styles that will likely be on display at Budapest’s Puskás Aréna.

In one corner is Luis Enrique’s PSG, the top scorer in this season’s Champions League with 44 goals – that’s an average of more than three per game – and the clinical, ruthless juggernaut who blew away Inter Milan 5-0 in last year’s title match for the biggest final victory in the competition’s 70-year history.

In the other is Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal, the recently crowned English champions who possess by far the Champions League’s nastiest defence, a suffocating off-the-ball formation and the most efficient, advanced set-piece threat around.

If anyone has the means to prevent PSG from becoming just the second team to retain the title in the Champions League era, it is certainly Arteta.

Luis Enrique has no doubts about it. “They are the best defensive team in Europe,” the PSG coach said of Arsenal, “and have been for a few years.”

The statistics prove this.

In this season’s Champions League, Arsenal have kept nine clean sheets – three more than any other team – and scored just six goals in their 14 games. Two of those goals came in the last round, a dead match against Kairat Almaty as Arsenal had already qualified. By comparison, PSG conceded 22 goals.

In the Premier League, Arsenal had shutouts in exactly half of the 38 games in the title-winning season and scored just 27 goals, the least of which was eight. By the time the title was clinched with a round to spare, Arsenal had played 37 games and allowed just one shot on target or less in 13 of them.

Arteta typically deploys a back four consisting of four centre-backs, a tactic first used in English football by his mentor, Pep Guardiola, with a central midfielder in Declan Rice or Martin Zubimendi up front.

Get through all that and there’s David Raya – arguably the Premier League’s best goalkeeper this season – to save the team.

During his six years at Arsenal, Arteta has seen the direction English football has gone – the dominance of Manchester City, a stacked schedule due to more and expanded competitions, greater strength in the Premier League due to record levels of broadcast revenue – and realized marginal gains will put Arsenal more ahead than ever.

This is no more the case than with the supremacy of set pieces, reinforced by the appointment of a specialized coach of set pieces in Nicolas Jover in 2021.

On their way to winning their first Premier League title since 2004 this season, Arsenal scored 25 of 71 goals from dead-ball situations – more than anyone else.

That’s what the competition’s statistics supplier says to electwhich also said Arsenal have scored 19 goals from corners – a record for a single Premier League season.

Arsenal have a big squad – four imposing defenders and a robust number 9 in Viktor Gyokeres or Kai Havertz – and a sharp game image through Rice and Bukayo Saka. Don’t be surprised if that is Arsenal’s best route to a goal on Saturday.

Arsenal can be a tough watch. After the possession-dominant style of Manchester City under Guardiola and the heavy metal approach of Liverpool under Jurgen Klopp, Arteta’s game plan has sometimes disappointed the neutrals in the Premier League.

Yet it works. More than any team in England or Europe, Arsenal can appear to be in control of the match without even having the ball.

Take this statistic: The Gunners this season became the first team in the Premier League’s 34-year history to go a season without conceding a penalty or receiving a red card.

In the Champions League, Arsenal did not receive a single yellow card in the quarter-finals or semi-finals.

«We know their ability to play without the ball; in that respect they are the best team in the world,» said Luis Enrique. «And with the ball they are able to score a lot of goals. It’s a fascinating combination.»

It sounds strange to say about a club that hasn’t played a Champions League final in 20 years, but Arsenal are heading into the biggest club match in European football without any pressure.

Winning the Premier League for the first time since 2004 has lifted some weight from players who had high expectations after so many near misses in recent seasons – three consecutive second-place finishes in the Premier League, a Champions League semi-final last season, and even losing the English League Cup final in March.

“We are the champions and that brings a lot of confidence and a different kind of presence and energy,” Arteta said.

“We already talked about what we have to do in Budapest and how we are going to use all the incredible energy that we all carry with us to that final.”

Published on May 29, 2026