BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Attack vs. defense? Beauty vs. the beast? Art vs. science?
Even if that’s too simplistic a way of looking at the Champions League final between Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal on Saturday, it pretty much sums up the clash of styles likely to be on show at the Puskás Aréna in Budapest.
In one corner is Luis Enrique’s PSG, the top scorer in this season’s Champions League with 44 goals — that’s an average of more than three per game — and the clinical, relentless juggernaut that blew away Inter Milan 5-0 in last year’s title match for the biggest win in a final in the competition’s 70-year history.
In the other is Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal, the newly crowned English champion which owns by far the Champions League’s meanest defense, a smothering off-the-ball set-up, and the most efficient, advanced set-piece threat around.
“We’re looking at getting to the same destination,” Luis Enrique said Friday. “We’ve just taken two different routes.”
The unstoppable force vs. the immovable object?
Something like that.
If anyone has the tools to stop PSG from becoming just the second team to retain the title in the Champions League era, it’s surely Arteta.
Here’s why:
‘Best team’ at defending
Luis Enrique is in no doubt.
“They’re the best defensive team in Europe,” the PSG coach said of Arsenal, “and they have been for a few years.”
The statistics bear this out.
In this season’s Champions League, Arsenal has kept nine clean sheets — three more than any other team —and let in just six goals in its 14 games. Two of those goals came in the final round, a dead match against Kairat Almaty because Arsenal had already qualified. PSG, by comparison, has conceded 22 goals.
Over in the Premier League, Arsenal had shutouts in exactly half of the 38 games in its title-winning campaign and let in just 27 goals, the fewest by eight. By the time the title was clinched with a round to spare, Arsenal had played 37 games and allowed just one shot on target or fewer in 13 of them.
Arteta typically deploys a back four consisting of four center backs — a tactic first used in English soccer by his mentor, Pep Guardiola — with a screening midfielder in either Declan Rice or Martin Zubimendi in front.
Get through all that and there’s David Raya — arguably the Premier League’s best goalkeeper this season — to bail the team out.
Set-piece threat
Over his 6 1/2 years at Arsenal, Arteta has seen the way English soccer has headed — the dominance of Manchester City, a stacked schedule because of more and expanded competitions, greater strength in depth in the Premier League because of record levels of broadcast revenue — and realized marginal gains will gain Arsenal an edge more than ever.
No more so is this the case than with set-piece supremacy, boosted by the appointment of a specialist set-piece coach in Nicolas Jover in 2021.
En route to winning its first Premier League title since 2004 this season, Arsenal scored 25 of its 71 goals from dead-ball situations — more than anyone else.
That’s according to the competition’s stats supplier Opta, which also said Arsenal has scored 19 goals from corners — a record for a single Premier League season.
Arsenal has a big team — four imposing defenders and a robust No. 9 in either Viktor Gyokeres or Kai Havertz — and incisive set-piece delivery through Rice and Bukayo Saka.
Don’t be surprised if that’s Arsenal’s best route to a goal on Saturday.
In control without the ball
Arsenal can be a tough watch. Indeed, coming after Man City’s possession-dominant style under Guardiola and Liverpool’s heavy-metal approach under Jurgen Klopp, Arteta’s gameplan has been underwhelming for the neutral at times in the Premier League.
Yet it works.
More than any side in England or in Europe, Arsenal can seem in control of games without even having the ball.
Take this stat: The Gunners this season became the first team in the 34-year history of the Premier League to go through a campaign without giving away a penalty or getting a red card.
In the Champions League, Arsenal didn’t receive a single yellow card in the quarterfinals or semifinals.
“We know their ability to play without the ball — they are the best team in the world in that regard,” Luis Enrique said. “And with the ball, they are capable of scoring many goals. It’s a fascinating combination.”
Playing with pressure off
It sounds a strange thing to say about a club that hasn’t played in a Champions League final for 20 years, but Arsenal is heading into the biggest club game in European soccer with the pressure off.
Winning the Premier League for the first time since 2004 has removed a weight off players who were carrying heavy expectations after so many near misses in recent seasons — three straight runner-up finishes in the Premier League, a Champions League semifinal last season, even losing the English League Cup final in March.
“We are the champions and that brings a lot of confidence and a different kind of presence and energy to it,” Arteta said.
“We talked about already what we have to do in Budapest and how we’re going to use all the incredible energy that we all carry into that final.”
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