At the halfway stage of the Champions League’s inaugural league phase, Sporting CP and Arsenal have had rather different European campaigns.
Only Liverpool sit above the Lisbon giants, who have racked up ten points from four games. A bastion of swash and buckle, Sporting’s last continental outing was a 4-1 rout at home to Manchester City. Arsenal have only scored three goals across the entire league phase thus far.
The Gunners, in fairness, have only conceded once – Hakan Calhanoglu’s penalty for Inter – and still have qualification for the knockout stages in their hands. However, if Mikel Arteta‘s side hope to avoid a draining two-legged play-off, they may need to inflict Sporting’s first defeat of the season when they travel to Lisbon on Tuesday.
Ruben Amorim may have left the Portuguese champions to feud with Ed Sheeran in Suffolk, but Sporting still pose an almighty threat to an Arsenal side only tentatively rediscovering their best form.
Sporting’s remorseless talisman Viktor Gyokeres has shown no respect for any competition or opposition this season, indiscriminately racking up an endless tally of goals. The royally in-form 26-year-old boasts 33 in 25 games for club and country, including a trio against Manchester City last time out in the Champions League.
Arsenal‘s formidable pairing of William Saliba and Gabriel have a set formula when faced with a hulking forward. The front-foot Brazilian usually engages first, getting a good whiff of the opponent’s cologne while the deceptively swift Saliba sweeps up behind.
The shutout against Nottingham Forest on Saturday afternoon was Arsenal’s first Premier League clean sheet since September. However, they have been far more parsimonious in European competition – which, in truth, is a consequence of luck and judgement. Gyokeres will emphatically test Arsenal’s continental resolve this week.
“It’s not a coincidence, the team flows in a different way when he is playing,” Arteta gushed when recently reflecting on the impact of his captain, Martin Odegaard. “When he’s in the team, you can sense something that is different. It’s difficult to put a finger on it, but it’s different.” Different, and much better.
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