This is the Arsenal plan that can blunt PSG and land Champions League glory | OneFootball

As light and free as it feels around the Arsenal squad in Budapest, Mikel Arteta’s staff will already be stressing a key requirement.

It will be one of those the players need to have imprinted on their minds by the time they finally step onto that Puskas Arena grass. When Arsenal are attacking, they need to ensure any move is taken to its conclusion; “to complete the action”; to not allow any loose balls.

The play has to go dead, or that’s how Paris Saint-Germain “kill” you.

It is the quality that has now been terrorising Europe for almost two years. No team in the modern game – or arguably in history – has been as good at rampaging from one end of a pitch to the other as the defending European champions.

Such details could be perceived as another pointer towards the many contrasts that invigorate this 71st Champions League final.

Above all, there’s the classic boxing-like clash of styles that has gone to another level since the semi-finals.

While PSG are a team constantly looking to expand the pitch with exhilarating attacking play, a calculated Arsenal bring everything into the margins. “The same idea, but different,” as Luis Enrique put it.

One theme of the season has been whether some of these differences are influenced by the relative economic contrast between Arteta’s side and some rivals. For the second time this season, Arsenal have to overcome a state-owned club to claim a major trophy. Many reservations exist about Arsenal’s own capitalist ownership, of course, but the difference is one of scale.

Qatar might own Europe again.

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Vitinha, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Achraf Hakimi of Paris Saint-Germain look on during the training session (Getty)

And that difference has so far manifested in another grand contrast to this final.

While PSG are seeking to crown their new dominance with the historically resonant feat of retaining the trophy – something done eight times since the European Cup’s 1955 conception, and once in the Champions League – Arsenal are just hoping for their first.

The north London side are now undeniably the biggest club yet to win the competition, in what is a surprisingly poor European record.

Arteta is said by those close to him to feel it is his “destiny” to be the first manager to bring the grand trophy to the club.

One slight curiosity to that quest is how Arsenal have already fulfilled a sense of fate this season. They’ve finally won the domestic title again.

If it would obviously be absurd to describe the ultimate fixture in club football as a “free hit” – especially given the yearning among Arsenal fans to win it – this is probably the freest hit a Champions League final can be. Fulfilling the great ambition of winning the Premier League means Arsenal will have enjoyed a great season, no matter what. And while that journey was driven – or almost undermined – by this notorious angst, it means the squad are in the rare position of almost just getting to enjoy this most pressurised of fixtures.

The game itself will dictate whether that’s a good thing or not.

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Mikel Arteta must combat Luis Enrique’s PSG machine with unpredictability (Getty)

Arsenal could still have their “head in the clouds”. And sometimes, but especially when you’re looking to start a new era, you have to seize such opportunities when they come.

There’s not just a first Champions League at stake, after all, but a double, and what would just be England’s sixth. It is only Arsenal’s second final, too, and that after a 20-year wait.

Arteta, for his part, scotched any talk of a “free hit”. He said he could “feel” the edge, “such a desire” to “write a new history”.

That long-awaited Premier League title has nevertheless affirmed something else that’s rare about this final. It is fittingly one between the two best teams in Europe, and arguably the first like that since 2009.

PSG have duly been talked up in a similar way to the Barcelona that won 17 years ago. Surpassing them by actually retaining the Champions League would afford quite the legacy, even if it is one used geopolitically.

On that, Budapest and this stadium are great venues for such a game, but not necessarily the right venues. The city has only 26,000 hotel rooms and the stadium only 67,155 seats, well over 20,000 fewer than Uefa’s favourite, Wembley. Budapest was already busy with tens of thousands of Arsenal fans by Thursday evening and absolutely heaving by Friday. You can feel the scale of the event.

It was an event that Viktor Orban long desired to host, in a political context that is, of course, linked to why such an undersized venue is staging the final in the first place. There’s quite the irony that a prime minister frequently accused of democratic backsliding is not here for it, having been voted out of office just weeks beforehand.

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PSG coach Luis Enrique during training (Reuters)

And what an event it might be. In the same way that there arguably hasn’t been a showpiece between Europe’s two best sides since 2009, there hasn’t really been a great Champions League final since 2005.

This at least has all the ingredients.

For all that the separate journeys have fostered a view that PSG are clear favourites, the view within both clubs is that this is genuinely a 50-50 game.

PSG may have the best attacking trident in football, on top of the most spectacular system, but Arsenal have the best defensive structure.

And if Luis Enrique is currently hailed as the best manager in the world right now, Arteta is arguably the best possible manager to take him on. He will pose the PSG coach challenges he hasn’t yet faced.

When the two teams met in last season’s semi-final, after all, it was an Arsenal without many senior players, let alone this season’s signings. They still feel they should have won that tie.

Even within that frustration – with some of Arteta’s players known to want “revenge” – they were struck by a quality that has otherwise seen the rest of Europe unravel. You really can’t let concentration slip for a millisecond against PSG, not with those attackers.

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The slippery style of Vitinha (second left) could evade Arsenal’s press (Reuters)

Aside from being able to move the ball up the pitch so quickly, Luis Enrique’s side are also so fast in tight areas. The rotations are like lightning. Luis Enrique’s great tactical legacy is perhaps that he has revitalised the will to take people on. He has even given Pep Guardiola’s model something new.

It’s just that adapting to this – in the same way Arteta himself has adapted Guardiola’s approach – is also what he is especially adept at. Arsenal don’t just create defensive blocks, but multilayered structures that are meticulously calibrated to individual movements.

One of Jurrien Timber’s many qualities is that he is able to internalise such game models immediately. And he’s also probably the best right-back in the world, too.

It’s why Timber's selection might well be the element on which the entire final turns, particularly with Kvicha Kvaratskhelia on that side of the pitch. This could be one of those decisions up there with Harry Kane being picked in 2019, for bad, or Dietmar Hamann being brought on in 2005, for good. Arteta confirmed Timber is fit, but really... use a player who hasn’t appeared in 70 days?

Arsenal do have a clear need there.

Aside from not otherwise having a natural right-back due to Ben White’s injury, that is exactly the area where Kvaratskhelia has become possibly the best attacker in the world.

He is just joyous to watch, and devastating with it.

Although not always for a full game.

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The Puskas Arena and Budapest have brought issues for a game of this magnitude (PA)

There lies another contrast. While PSG constantly look to blaze from the moment of kick-off, that sensational Bayern first leg reminded us that they rarely end games so well. They have strength in depth in a weak league, sure, but their performances in big European nights involve a fiery intensity that can also burn them out.

Against that, Arsenal have maybe the deepest squad in football, and a full complement outside of White. That means Arteta can drastically change things later in the match, but also gives him an advantage he has idealised since arriving at the club.

Arsenal can go into a game of this magnitude with the opposition manager having no certainty about how they will line up. Arsenal may not know which way a newly fit Ousmane Dembele will turn, but PSG don’t know who will play.

The importance of that is illustrated in how the defending champions immediately kicked for a throw-in in that first leg against Bayern Munich, because they knew exactly the strengths and weaknesses of the defenders. In an era where analysis has become the key to the game, Luis Enrique can’t pick the opposition team.

That strength in depth is also complemented by actual physical strength. Arsenal are bigger. PSG are similarly vulnerable at set plays and can struggle with second balls. Declan Rice might be crucial there. It’s also why there’s been an expectation that Myles Lewis-Skelly’s energy will be picked over Martin Zubimendi.

Numerical superiority in crucial moments is going to be key. Opposition sides have noted that if you manage to break the PSG press and get past one of them, the whole game opens up. It’s just that it’s not as easy as it sounds.

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Jurrien Timber has not played in more than two months (Reuters)

And if your team has physicality, Vitinha has the deftness to just evade you. Then PSG know how to stretch you.

That is why Arsenal need to “complete their actions”. They need to ensure any move ends with a shot or a save, because otherwise PSG will just go at them.

It could almost be a final rallying cry for the season. Complete your actions, and so complete the double.

“The ambition is bigger,” Arteta said. There have rarely been games of such scale.