Mikel Arteta takes his Arsenal side to Lisbon on Tuesday night as they take on Sporting CP in the Champions League, with the hosts settling into life after Ruben Amorim. With the head coach now departed for Manchester United, the Primeira Liga leaders are under the guidance of Joao Pereira from this point onwards, with his first game resulting in a 6-0 cup win against lower-league opposition.
This will be somewhat of a bigger test, but Sporting have the comfort of points on the board after Amorim led them to 10 points from four games, leaving them second in the expanded Champions League table, behind only Liverpool. Arsenal have been a little less consistent, with seven points accrued to put them 12th – good enough for a playoff spot but not automatic qualification, so improvements are needed if that remains the aim.
One big issue is the Gunners’ away form in Europe, with just one away win in eight years in this competition. Follow the live blog below for team news and match action from Sporting v Arsenal:
Sporting v Arsenal – live
Here’s the state of play in the Champions League before kick-off in Tuesday’s early matches:
- Liverpool 12 pts
- Sporting 10
- Monaco 10
- Brest 10
- Inter 10
- Barcelona 9
- Dortmund 9
- Villa 9
Those eight currently occupy the automatic progression places, through to the last 16. Then in the playoff spots:
It’s Atalanta on eight points, then Man City, Juventus, Arsenal, Leverkusen, Lille, Celtic, Dinamo Zagreb all have seven and Real Madrid, Benfica, Bayern Munich, AC Milan, Feyenoord, Club Brugge and Atletico Madrid all have six. Add in PSV on five and that’s the whole list of teams in the playoff spots, down to 24th.
So clearly, a lot of places to jump up or fall down each match right now, depending on whether the Gunners emerge successful.
Karl Matchett26 November 2024 17:45
Sporting v Arsenal – live
A big sticking point for the Gunners tonight is that their away form in the Champions League is, to put it nicely, diabolical.
Arteta’s team – dating back to before he was in charge of course – have won just a single away match in Europe’s top competition in almost eight years, and if they don’t win tonight, it’ll go beyond that eight-year mark.
Since beating Basel away in 2016, the Gunners have gone to Bayern Munich, Lens, PSV, Porto, Bayern again, Atalanta and Inter Milan and beaten none of them. Just a solitary 2-1 win over a then-struggling Sevilla team a little over a year ago remains their fond recent memory among Europe’s elite.
To be clear there was a gap when Arsenal weren’t in the competition, but even so, it’s one win in seven on the road for Arteta, a record he’ll know must improve considerably.
Karl Matchett26 November 2024 17:35
Sporting v Arsenal – live
Good evening and welcome to our live coverage of Sporting CP vs Arsenal in the Champions League – a big night for the Gunners in trying to get their automatic qualification hopes back on track.
They are only a couple of points adrift of the top eight ahead of this week’s round of games, but with only three more matches to play after tonight, they can’t afford to lose much more ground if they don’t want to head into the playoffs.
Karl Matchett26 November 2024 13:37