Having ended a 22-year wait to regain the Premier League trophy, we now have the opportunity to end a 55-year odyssey to be crowned European champions when we face holders Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League final on Saturday (5pm UK).

An already-glorious campaign will reach its crescendo in Budapest’s Puskas Stadium as we aim to exact revenge on the French giants for eliminating us at the semi-final stage last term. As the competition’s most deadly attack meets its meanest defence, we’ll take confidence into the showpiece having remained unbeaten in our 14 continental clashes in 2025/26. 

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The opportunity now rests with Mikel Arteta and our squad to immortalise themselves in our history by being the group that finally brings club football’s biggest prize to north London, and complete a season that would rival the Invincibles as the greatest in our 139-year history.

PSG are the first team to reach consecutive finals since Liverpool in 2019, and are aiming to become only the second club in the Champions League era to defend their title, a feat previously achieved only by Real Madrid who won three in a row between 2016 and 2018.

An argument for that looked pretty unconvincing when they failed to win any of their last three league-phase games to sink to 11th. They then narrowly edged past Monaco in the play-off round 5-4 on aggregate, however, just like last season, they have improved as the competition progressed.

They easily cruised past Chelsea and Liverpool before an incredible semi-final with Bayern Munich, which saw them win the home leg 5-4, and a 1-1 draw in Germany booked their ticket to Budapest. They head into the final having celebrated a fifth successive Ligue 1 title, and have also scooped the FIFA Intercontinental Cup, UEFA Super Cup and Trophee de France during another remarkable campaign.

WHAT THE MANAGERS SAY

Arteta: "I think it's the opportunity to own the moment because it's the second time in our history that we are here and we have the opportunity tomorrow to write a new chapter in the history of this football club. In order to do that, we have to play tomorrow with such clarity, a lot of courage and a relentless desire to win. We have those three aspects and I'm sure that we're going to be close to winning.

"The ambition is bigger. We have won one and we want the second one. That's all we've been talking about. That has to be a platform to reach bigger destinations and to aim for more. The team is capable because we've shown it in the last two or three seasons in this competition, and I want the players to be so confident that we're going to go and do it."

Enrique: “I wouldn’t say we [PSG and Arsenal] have two different visions, we have similar ideas but have taken different paths. They also score a lot of goals, and we are also a team that defends very well - we’ve just taken different paths to get to that. 

"Approaching a final is always something different, you need to make the most of it as you never know when you’re going to play one again. We know them quite well as we’ve played them a few times over the last few years. There are always details we can tweak, I think we can improve our performances up front and in defence."

TEAM NEWS

Jurrien Timber continues to be in a race against time to prove his fitness before the game, having been out of action with a groin problem since March. Ben White will miss out with the knee injury he sustained at West Ham United.

However Mikel Merino’s timely return from injury in our Premier League finale at Crystal Palace was a welcome boost, while the muscle tweak sustained by Noni Madueke in that game isn’t serious.

Achraf Hakimi and Nuno Mendes have provided Enrique’s biggest headache as they haven’t featured since the semi-final first leg against Bayern Munich with thigh injuries, but both have resumed training and Enrique has confirmed they are fit and available.

The same goes for Ousmane Dembele, who came off with a calf problem in PSG’s Ligue 1 concluding game against Paris FC a fortnight ago, but has declared himself 100% fit, while backup keeper Lucas Chevalier and teenage forward Quentin Ndjantou have also returned to leave our opponents with a fully fit squad to select from.

TALKING TACTICS

Adrian Clarke: PSG are rightly considered the best in-possession side in the world. From a 4-3-3 base, Enrique’s team are fast, direct, exceptionally fluid, and always dangerous. Their go-to style is to attack with chaotic freedom using positional rotation, unexpected overloads, and full-backs inside the box on a regular basis.

However after scoring first in the semi-final second leg against Bayern Munich, the French champions unusually effectively shut up shop. Refusing to engage with the press, they stopped playing through the thirds and went extremely direct, proving they have become a more rounded, tactically versatile outfit.

While control is Enrique’s preferred way, they are actually just as dangerous from fast breaks and transitions, scoring seven goals from high turnovers in the Champions League this season, so we must be careful inside our own half. Vitinha, Ousmane Dembele and Nuno Mendes very much world-class, but it is left winger Khvicha Kvaratskhelia who is their star man. Whoever starts at right-back will need to get tight to him, and on their inside William Saliba has a huge role covering.

Set plays will be hugely important. PSG have scored three more set-piece goals than us in this year’s competition, but the holders are a relatively small side in terms of height. The Parisians have made 26 errors leading to a shot in this competition, and six led to goals. If we are brave enough to press at the right times, we could force a decisive error that helps us win the game.

FACTS AND STATS

This will be our 63rd game of 2025/26, more than any team from the big five European leagues. It’s our most for 46 years, when we played a club-record 70 matches in the 1979/80 campaign.

We have won 11 Champions League games this season, with only Real Madrid in 2001/02 previously winning more in a single campaign (12). 

PSG are unbeaten in their last 11 Champions League knockout matches, winning nine and drawing two.

The Parisians’ 44 goals in this year’s tournament are the outright second most scored by a team in a single edition, behind Barcelona’s 45 in 1999/00.

We could become the 25th team to win the European Cup, and the third first-time winner of the competition over the last four editions, after Manchester City in 2023 and PSG in 2025. 

We could also become the seventh English club to lift the trophy – no other country has had more than three different winners.

We have played 225 games without winning the Champions League/European Cup, more than any other side.

This is the fourth meeting between the sides since the start of last season. Only Manchester City and Real Madrid have faced each other more often in the competition during the same span (5).

This will be the first-ever major European final between clubs from France and England.

PSG have prevailed in each of their last five Champions League knockout ties against English clubs. Manchester City were the last English side to eliminate the Parisians, in the semi-finals of the 2020/21 tournament.

Since the round of 16 last season, 54% of PSG’s Champions League matches have been against English clubs (13 out of 24, including the final). This includes six of the nine knockout ties over the same period (v Liverpool, Aston Villa and Arsenal last season; Chelsea, Liverpool and us this season).

Bukayo Saka has recorded more goal involvements against French opposition than any other country’s opponents in the Champions League, scoring five goals and delivering three assists in just six matches. This tally includes two goals scored in his three games against PSG.

Khvicha Kvaratskhelia has been involved in more goals than any other player in this season’s knockout phase, scoring seven times and delivering three assists. He is the first player to score or assist in seven consecutive knockout-stage appearances in the same UCL campaign.

David Raya has kept nine clean sheets in the Champions League this season – no goalkeeper has ever recorded 10 shutouts in a single campaign in the competition.

This will be Luis Enrique’s third Champions League final as manager, having previously led both Barcelona and Paris to the title in 2015 and 2025 respectively. His win rate (64%) is the best of any manager with 50+ matches in UCL history.

MATCH OFFICIALS

For the third round in a row, Daniel Siebert will referee us in what will be his first major European final. The German oversaw our 1-0 win at Sporting Lisbon in the quarters and our single-goal success against Atletico Madrid in the semi-final second leg. We have won on all four occasions he has been appointed to our matches.

He has been a Bundesliga referee since 2012 and was added to the FIFA list two years later. A part-time teacher, he refereed at Euro 2020, the 2022 World Cup and Euro 2024, but won’t be heading to this summer’s World Cup. In nine Champions League games this season, he has issued 41 yellow cards, two reds and awarded one penalty.

Referee: Daniel Siebert (GER)
Assistants: Jan Seidel, Rafael Foltyn (GER)
Fourth official: Sandro Scharer (SUI)
VAR: Bastian Dankert (GER)

Our Prediction: Paris Saint-Germain to WIN

Arsenal have never won the Champions League, and they may find it difficult to cope with the occasion on Saturday, so it may make sense to back PSG

The match itself is likely to be closely fought, and given PSG have been vulnerable defensively despite their offensive prowess, backing Both Teams to Score

Enrique's men will be encountering a strong defence, but they have been exceptional going forward, and there is value in predicting Over 1.5 Goals for PSG

Conceding more than once could be fatal for the Gunners considering they have rarely found the back of the net twice in the knockouts, meaning a prediction of Under 1.5 Goals for Arsenal