Arsenal kick off their Champions League campaign with a clash against Serie A side, and last season’s Europa League winners, Atalanta away from home.
It’s a tricky start to the newly revamped competition for Mikel Arteta’s men but they will be confident about securing all three points despite a growing injury list. Arsenal have started the season with three wins and a draw from their first four Premier League matches and are in good touch ahead of this European outing.
In comparison, Atalanta have made an mixed start to their own domestic campaign. Two wins and two defeats perhaps points to a lack of consistency but they are difficult opponents to overcome. The Italians beat Bayer Leverkusen in the Europa League final to end the Germans’ unbeaten run for the campaign and win their first trophy since the 2011 Serie B title.
Arteta is hoping to add to Arsenal’s trophy cabinet this season and has eyes on the biggest European prize but to do so the Gunners will need to set down a marker tonight.
Follow all the action from the Champions League with our live blog below:
How will Arsenal set up?
Plenty of questions surrounding how Arsenal will set up this evening, having got through last weekend’s north London derby unscathed but with Manchester City away at the Etihad to come this Sunday, 22 September.
The new format of the Champions League means that tonight is far from a must-win game for the Gunners, so it stands to reason that Mikel Arteta will rest several of his key players tonight. Anyone who started last week’s win at Spurs in contention to start on the bench this evening, from William Saliba and Gabriel to Bukayo Saka and Kai Havertz – however, the bench at Spurs was probably a little too inexperienced for Arteta to make too many changes.
Declan Rice could feature after sitting out last weekend through suspension, while Gabriel Jesus could start in place of Havertz and Raheem Sterling could make his first start for the club. And could Ethan Nwaneri feature from kick-off?
Arteta is a fan of continuity in his starting line-ups, but with such a tough test ahead on Sunday, who knows what the Spaniard will set up with tonight.
We’ll find out in about 15 minutes.
Team news recap
A reminder of the early team news ahead of the line-ups being released around 6.45pm BST.
Atalanta are without a couple of major players including striker Gianluca Scamacca and centre-back Giorgio Scalvini. New addition Ben Godfrey will also miss out through injury and Rafael Toloi is a doubt.
Arsenal are missing captain Martin Odegaard, new signing Mikel Merino and full-backs Takehiro Tomiyasu and Oleksandr Zinchenko. Declan Rice is available after a domestic suspension.
Riccardo Calafiori could return, while Bukayo Saka is set to be available despite limping off the north London derby.
Mikel Arteta’s tactical tweaks have built an Arsenal side capable of winning the Champions League
In some of the difficult early seasons in north London, and even when things started to pick up and there was interest elsewhere, there was a particular motivation that drove Mikel Arteta. That was to become the first manager to win the Champions League for Arsenal. While returning the Premier League trophy to the club has obviously been just as high, Europe’s greatest prize was repeatedly mentioned. There would obviously be something unique, and euphoric, about achieving that. You only had to see the glee on his face when Arsenal finally got back into the Champions League again last season. It was visible once more on Wednesday night, as he spoke about preparing for the Atalanta game and the heightened stage.
This is where the club belongs.
It is by now a well-worn discussion to ponder whether Arsenal are the biggest club to never win the Champions League, especially since it’s probably true. It also remains remarkable that London clubs as a whole only have two, both through Chelsea’s victories under Roman Abramovich in 2012 and 2021, respectively.
The new Champions League sets up a high-stakes game in football’s ‘turning point’
When Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin attends the first games of the new Champions League this week, it will be with a considerable security detail. This has led to grumbles from federation staff, especially since very few people outside football know what he even looks like. There have probably only been two moments when the Slovenian official was properly in the public eye.
One was when the Super League was launched in April 2021 and Ceferin admirably defended the spirit of European football in a defiant media appearance, all while lambasting executives as “snakes” and “liars”. Less publicised from that day was the fact Uefa were also in the process of approving the changes to the Champions League we are going to see enacted this week.
This directly led to the second time, as Ceferin was inexplicably put front and centre of Uefa’s launch video at the group-stage draw. There was no doubting who the star was supposed to be, given there were even jokes at Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s expense. The many actual football stars in the video weren’t given anything like the same status.
Why are Arsenal playing Atalanta in the Champions League on a Thursday?
The Champions League is back for 2024/25 and Arsenal head to Bergamo to kick-off their continental campaign, but there is one unusual aspect about their first fixture.
In fact, given it’s an entirely new format for the European calendar after Uefa’s sweeping reforms of how the elite clubs will compete, there’s lots which is unusual, starting with the fact this is one of eight league-phase fixtures the Gunners will play, rather than six.
To spread focus around the other competitions – the Europa League and Conference League are both following the wider format of one enormous league system from this year – Uefa declared that each competition will have a single gameweek when they are the only European competition playing.
As such, rather than nine games on Tuesday and nine on Wednesday – which will be the case for matchday two on 1 and 2 October, then again for matchdays three to seven – the first round of games in the Champions League will be split across three nights.
New-look Champions League shows football’s biggest problem right from the start
After such a grand build-up, the new Champions League’s opening night didn’t exactly suggest new excitement – or much unpredictability at all. Every single one of the pre-match favourites won. At least five of them, and arguably six, did so in a very comfortable manner. Bayern Munichwent beyond comfort. They eviscerated Dinamo Zagreb 9-2, a result that should be very damaging for a launch night. It was worse than what came before.
The Champions League itself, of course, has been a powerful engine in creating this disparity. It’s another reason this doesn’t bode well.
Arsenal’s UCL fixtures
Here’s a breakdown of Arsenal’s confirmed fixtures in this year’s revamped Champions League format.
19 September
20:00 Atalanta – Arsenal
20:00 Arsenal – Paris Saint-Germain
22 October
20:00 Arsenal – FC Shakhtar Donetsk
6 November
20:00 FC Internazionale Milano – Arsenal
26 November
20:00 Sporting Clube de Portugal – Arsenal
11 December
20:00 Arsenal – AS Monaco
22 January
20:00 Arsenal – GNK Dinamo
29 January
20:00 Girona FC – Arsenal
Today’s Champions League matches
(All times BST)
17:45 Feyenoord v Bayer 04 Leverkusen – TNT Sports 2
17:45 FK Crvena Zvezda v SL Benfica – TNT Sports 4
20:00 Atalanta BC v Arsenal FC – TNT Sports 1
20:00 AS Monaco v FC Barcelona – TNT Sports 2
20:00 Atlético de Madrid v RB Leipzig – TNT Sports 4
20:00 Stade Brestois 29 v SK Sturm Graz – TNT Sports 5
Where to watch every Champions League fixture on TV this week
The first round of the new-look Champions League kicks off this week, with a fresh 36-team league format replacing the old group stage.
The first gameweek sees City host Inter in a rematch of the 2023 final, Liverpool travel to AC Milan, Arsenal visit Atalanta, Celtic play Slovan Bratislava and Aston Villa mark their first Champions League appearance against Young Boys.
there will be a new broadcaster in the UK, with Amazon Prime Video holding rights for one match a week under a new TV agreement. The streaming service will have the top pick each Tuesday, with TNT Sports broadcasting the other matches.
Martin Odegaard out for ‘a while’ with ‘significant’ ankle injury as Arsenal suffer injury blow
Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard faces a lengthy spell on the sidelines after a scan showed “significant” damage to his ankle.
“The scan showed some damage around the ligaments in the ankle so we are going to miss him,” said Arteta.
“It’s something quite significant so we are going to lose him for a while. Hopefully not months.”