Mikel Arteta
The 35,000 capacity Philips Stadion in Eindhoven is the venue for the UEFA Champions League, UCL encounter between two sides, homers PSV Eindhoven and Arsenal whose seasons are quickly unravelling into disappointment.
Dutch side PSV were recently dumped out of the domestic cup at the semi-final stage by Go Ahead Eagles, before days later the same opponent would secure a league victory which allowed Ajax to extend their lead to eight points at the top of the Eredivisie table.
Coming from behind to beat Liverpool 3-2 in Eindhoven earlier this season, PSV won’t be intimidated by facing English opposition, as they boast a respectable historic home record against such clubs, winning eight, drawn seven and lost six.
Inspiring further confidence will be PSV’s unbeaten return in each of their last nine UCL home games in the competition proper (five wins and four draws), with their last such defeat coming in 2018/19.
It’s a familiar feeling for Arsenal. They’ve allowed Liverpool to go 13 points clear in the Premier League title race and with that effectively over at this stage, the Champions League becomes their only chance of silverware.
But that will be difficult. Very difficult.
Mikel Arteta’s men are on the same side of the bracket as Atletico Madrid, Liverpool, PSG and Real Madrid. While the round of 16 match-up may have been favourable, the route to the final certainly is not.
That’s a problem for another day and the short term focus is coming back from the Netherlands with something. That may be a slight issue with their lack of striker options.
The only goals they’ve scored across their last four in all competitions came away at relegation-bound Leicester. The Mikel Merino experiment an indication of how short the options are.
