Tuesday night, when Arsenal hosts Paris Saint-Germain at the Emirates Stadium, will provide another opportunity to gauge the team's progress under manager Mikel Arteta.
While neither team has lost in its league heading into the match, the French team leads the Champions League with two extra points after defeating Girona 1-0 in their opening game, while the Gunners were held to a goalless draw by Atalanta.
The revelation that France forward Ousmane Dembele, who has four goals in six Ligue 1 games for PSG, has been left out of the traveling squad for disciplinary reasons has given Arsenal a major boost.
Although Ben White may make a comeback after missing the previous two games due to a knee injury, Riccardo Calafiori is doubtful following his injury sustained in Saturday's 4-2 victory over Leicester City. The Gunners face selection issues of their own.
The French champions have advanced to the Champions League semifinals three times in the last five years, but they have never triumphed over Arsenal.
Granted, they have only met each other four times; the latest occasion was in the group stages of the same competition during the 2016/17 season and both games ended all square. After a 1-1 draw in Paris, they played out a 2-2 draw in London.
The lone match that ended in a draw was the 1994 European Cup Winners Cup match, in which the Gunners defeated the French team 1-0 at Highbury thanks to a single goal from Kevin Campbell following a 1-1 draw in France.
PSG has played more games against the Gunners without winning than any other opponent in European competition after going four games without a victory.
The fact that Enrique's team has lost all three of their away Uefa Champions League matches against English teams—once to Newcastle this season and twice to Manchester City (both in 2021)—gives Arsenal further cause for optimism tonight.
Last season, they suffered their worst away loss to an English opponent in European competition when they lost 4-1 at St. James' Park.
Even though Arteta's team drew 0-0 with Atalanta in their opening Uefa Champions League match of the season, they have scored 11 goals in their last three domestic games, therefore we anticipate them to score tonight.
Although they were defeated 1-0 by Bayern Munich in their final European encounter of the previous season, they had never before failed to score in three straight European Cup/Champions League games.
For PSG, who defeated Girona thanks to an own goal, finding the back of the net might be more challenging.
Kylian Mbappe scored PSG's last goal against Barcelona on April 16th in the Champions League. Since then, they have attempted 71 attempts in the competition without scoring, just 14 of which have been on target, and four of those have struck the woodwork.
