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We knew that Eze would be good in an Arsenal shirt. We just didn’t know he would be this good, this quickly.
Speaking of waif-like athletes who have a wand of a left foot and are preparing to face Arsenal …
Here is how Bayern got on at the weekend: they recovered from going 2-0 down to beat Freiburg 6-2.
Yes, Olise scored twice and provided three assists but Lennart Karl was also central to that comeback, becoming the youngest player in Bayern’s history – aged just 17 years and 273 days – to score and set up a goal in a single Bundesliga game.
For those that are catching up, the boy is a bit special. The teenager scored his first goal for Bayern last month and also became the club’s youngest scorer in Champions League history with his goal in the 4-0 triumph over Club Brugge in late October.
Two changes for Arsenal from the side that beat Spurs as Cristhian Mosquera comes in for Piero Hincapié at centre back and Myles Lewis-Skelly replaces Riccardo Calafiori at left back.
No player has scored more goals against Arsenal at the Emirates than Harry Kane (six) and the Englishman leads the line tonight for Bayern. You might notice that Luis Díaz is missing from Kompany’s squad – the former Liverpool winger has been on fire for Bayern since joining in the summer but is serving the first of a three-game European ban after being sent off against PSG in the last round.
The teams!
Arsenal: Raya, Timber, Saliba, Mosquera, Lewis-Skelly, Eze,
Zubimendi, Rice, Saka, Merino, Trossard.
Subs: Arrizabalaga, Setford, White, Hincapie, Odegaard, Martinelli, Norgaard, Madueke, Nwaneri, Calafiori.
Bayern Munich: Neuer, Laimer, Tah, Upamecano, Stanisic, Kimmich, Pavlovic, Olise, Karl, Gnabry, Kane.
Subs: Ulreich, Urbig, Kim, Goretzka, Jackson, Bischof, Ito, Guerreiro, Boey, Mike.
Referee: Marco Guida (Italy)
Away from the Emirates, it’s quite the night of European football. PSG, last season’s winners, host Tottenham. Internazionale travel to Atlético – one for the pragmatists, that. Hipsters, fear not, we have you covered with Eintracht Frankfurt v Atalanta. And a potential banana skin? Olympiakos v Real Madrid has all the makings of an upset. You can follow all that in our clockwatch with the esteemed Scott Murray.
Back to more serious matters. Sean Ingle has spoken with various stat gurus as he attempts to answer two questions:
1. How much stronger the Premier League is now compared with 2015, when Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi were at Real Madrid and Barcelona, and Pep Guardiola was masterminding Bayern’s destruction of Arsenal?
2. Could it be better for a team who play in an ‘easier’ league – such as Bayern and PSG – to keep players fresher for the Champions League knockout stages? Or do clubs such as Arsenal and Manchester City benefit from tougher domestic competition?
Speaking of Eze v Olise, who can forget the famous table tennis and chess matches (both won by Olise) of 2023?!
Preamble
At 4/1 and 5/1 respectively, Arsenal and Bayern Munich are the favourites to win this season’s Champions League outright, and it’s not really a surprise. Both are top of their domestic leagues by six points. Both retain a 100% record in Europe going into this match – come the end of it, that obviously won’t be the case.
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta and his Bayern counterpart, Vincent Kompany, have spent the build up to this one talking up their opponents. Arteta believes the Gunners remain in a “different universe” to Bayern given they have yet to win the Champions League, while Kompany claim the Londoners are the “most difficult task” the German side could be … um … tasked with. “[Arsenal] play with great physicality,” added the Bayern boss.
It’s true we would have never gotten this match in the old Champions League format, but given the relative lack of jeopardy in the league phase, this match does not carry the weight of previous knockout encounters between the two. The two sides met last year in a close two-legged quarter-final, with a 2-2 draw at the Emirates followed by a 1-0 win for Bayern in Bavaria. Before that, you’d have to go back to 2017 and the last knockings of the Arsène Wenger era. Neither set of fans have forgotten the 10-2 aggregate shellacking served by Bayern, two 5-1 pastings, home and away.
That’s a lot of history that probably doesn’t mean too much to the new players uninitiated in this fixture. Two of those are Bayern’s Michael Olise and Arsenal’s Eberechi Eze – the former Crystal Palace pals reuniting on club football’s biggest stage and both come into this match in sparkling form: Olise bagged two goals and provided three assists in Bayern’s 6-2 win over Freiburg on Saturday, while Eze netted a hat-trick for the Gunners in the north London derby. Not bad for a couple of lads that used to hack it around in the Championship.
This is a mouthwatering match. You don’t want to miss it.
Kick-off: 8pm GMT.
