Arsenal and Paris Saint-Germain have a lot in common, most notably their current fruitless attempts to win football’s Holy Grail, commonly known as the Champions League.
Both clubs have reached the final without winning, with the Gunners losing 2-1 to Barcelona at the Stade de France in 2006, and PSG reaching the showpiece in Lisbon four years ago but failing to prevent Bayern Munich from winning 1-0.
They will both like their chances of making it deep into the tournament again this year, and both have had strong beginnings to the season, with Mikel Arteta’s team third in the Premier League, only a point behind leaders Liverpool, and PSG leading Ligue 1 with 16 points out of a possible 18.
The Gunners have only failed to score once all season, in a 0-0 draw with Atalanta in Bergamo a fortnight ago, when David Raya made two brilliant penalty saves.
He is now the finest goalkeeper in English football, but while Arsenal also has the strongest defence, there is no question that it is preferable when they shut up shop on the road than when they battle it out at home.
Since defeating Wolves 2-0 on the first day of the season, the Gunners have drew 1-1 at the Emirates Stadium with Brighton, thrashed Bolton 5-1 in the Carabao Cup, and Leicester City 4-2 in the league, giving PSG some chance of scoring.
Bradley Barcola, a French striker, has the onerous task of replacing Kylian Mbappe as the main point of Paris’ attack, and he has done an excellent job thus far, scoring six goals in seven matches. He might get a consolation at 4/1 with bet365.
The Gunners, on the other hand, will be too strong for their opponents, who battled to defeat LaLiga underdogs Girona 1-0 at home in the first round of fixtures, and are 4/5 to win with BetGoodwin, while Kai Havertz may score for the third time in a row, bringing his season total to five goals.
The former Chelsea striker is 6/1 with bet365, Betfair, and Paddy Power to break the deadlock, and 21/10 with the same bookmakers to score at any point. A 2-1 Arsenal victory is 15/2 at bet365 and William Hill.
• Manchester City should easily defeat Slovan Bratislava, who were thrashed 5-1 at Celtic in the opening round of Champions League fixtures. Over 4.5 goals is 7/5 with Paddy Power, and we’ll take Pep Guardiola’s team to win 6-0 at 14/1 with William Hill, bet365, and 888Sport.
• Celtic have had a flawless start to the season, winning nine consecutive games and scoring 16 goals in their past three, but they will suffer their first setback at Borussia Dortmund. The Bundesliga team has won all three home games by a two-goal margin and is 13/10 with several bookmakers, including StarSports, to win by more than 1.5 this time around.
• Leeds, Birmingham, Wycombe, and Chesterfield make up Tuesday’s Football League acca.
