Lens – Arsenal
Champions League Group Stage Round 2
Lens, October 3, 21:00 CET
At the start of the Champions League season, Arsenal sent a clear message to their rivals with a 4:0 win over Dutch PSV in London almost two weeks ago. On Tuesday, with a win away to Lens in France, "Gunners" would already be close to the round of 16 in European elite.
The London team has not lost since July 22 and the friendly match with Manchester United (2:0). The Premier League runners-up have clear ambitions to win the English title in May. The team was heavily strengthened during the summer and the results followed that big investment. Since the start of the new PL season, the team has five wins and two draws.
Arsenal won two away games last week – against Bournemouth 4:0 at the weekend in the Premier League and before that 1:0 against Brentford in the League Cup. This team has played four away matches in official competitions since the beginning of the season and won all four without conceding a goal. Against Lens, they will have a new and excellent opportunity to win.
On the other hand, the French home team beat Strasbourg 1:0 away from home the previous weekend in League 1. In the first round of the Champions League, they managed to draw against Sevilla 1:1 in Spain.
However, the home team is burdened with injuries significantly for this match, and that reduces their chances of even a draw. Lens will not count on Cabot, Costa, Farinez and Haidara. On the other hand, midfielder Partey and defender Timber have not been in combinations for appearances in the Arsenal team for a long time, which did not affect the results.
Wingers Martinelli and Saka are expected to be ready to play for the favourites, after problems with minor injuries. English club finally has enough versatile options in attack, seems tactically extremely mature and for a reason the team of coach Mikel Arteta is the favorite to win away to France.
In a friendly game in 2016, Lens managed to win a draw against Arsenal 1:1 at home. Before that, Arsenal won this away game 2:1 in the UEFA Cup in April 2000. A similar epilogue could happen in this match, and the English team is expected to "break" the rival in the second half, because they are physically in a much better condition and have many more quality options on the bench.
Domination of the favorites in the middle of the field is expected, as well as a large number of shots by Arsenal players. In the previous match away at Bournemouth, Arsenal had as many as eight shots on target, and allowed their rivals only one shot on target. This is a great testimony to how much confidence Arteta's squad is currently playing with, they are in an ideal position to reach their second triumph in the new Champions League season this week.