Preview: Sporting CP v Arsenal | Pre-Match Report | News

Our Champions League journey takes us to Lisbon and a meeting with Portuguese champions Sporting CP on Tuesday (8pm UK) as we aim to end the Lions’ unbeaten start to the competition.

With the league stage now halfway through, we currently sit 12th in the table, two points behind the teams currently eyeing an automatic route to the last-16. One of those is Sporting, who have collected 10 points from four matches, and sit in second place.

This will be the seventh meeting between Sporting and ourselves and we have yet to lose to the Portuguese giants. However, they did eliminate us from the Europa League on penalties two seasons ago, but much has changed on and off the pitch for both sides in the preceding 18 months – and especially for Sporting in the last few weeks.

A new era in Lisbon

The club was rocked last month when Manchester United prised manager Ruben Amorim from them, who had clinched two league titles during his four-year stay and had started this season brilliantly with a perfect record of 11 wins from 11 league games to leave them on course for another title.

Their Champions League form has been even more impressive. Lille were beaten 2-0 to start the campaign before a draw at PSV Eindhoven, but a 2-0 win at Sturm Graz was followed by an incredible 4-1 dismantling of Manchester City three weeks ago, where red-hot striker Viktor Gyokeres helped himself to a hat-trick, part of a 24-goal haul in just 19 matches this term.

Reserve team boss Joao Pereira has stepped up to replace Amorim, and his reign began with a Portuguese Cup meeting with fourth-tier Amarante on Friday, whom they smashed 6-0 as the goals continue to flow in the capital.

What the managers say

Arteta: “We played and dominated the game [against Inter]and we should have won. But the reality is you have to make it happen, and we didn’t. Those steps are what we have to take next, be ruthless and be much more efficient in the opposition box, and when we get there do what we have to do to take the three points away from here.

“The run [Sporting] are on is incredible, that tells you it’s not only about their qualities, but their ambition, the team energy they have, that’s a great challenge we have – to come here tomorrow, make a statement and show that we are capable against this kind of opponent to be ourselves and win the game.”

Pereira: “We are lucky to be taking over team that already have the principles we have used, but it takes time. The players are in good form, they understand things well and anything that changes will be for the better, but it will come little by little.

“We know that we won’t be able to press the entire game all over the pitch, because it’s difficult and you can’t even do that in Portugal. There will be moments when the opponents will have more possession of the ball and we will have to close the spaces well and choose the right moment to break out from the pressure.”

Team news

Declan Rice, Kai Havertz and Gabriel Martinelli could all come into contention again after sitting out the win against Nottingham Forest on Saturday.

Ben White and Takehiro Tomiyasu continue to be our long-term injury victims with knee issues, while Kieran Tierney is building up his fitness after returning to training last week.

Influential Portuguese international Pedro Goncalves is out after picking up a thigh injury in a win against Braga a couple of weeks ago and will be missing for the rest of the year, joining fellow left winger Nuno Santos on the sidelines who will be unavailable for the rest of the season with an ACL injury.

Talking tactics

Adrian Clarke: This is only the second match under Pereira, but as Sporting achieved great success with a settled 3-4-2-1 or 3-4-3 formation, that is the shape I expect them to adopt.

Sporting swept Manchester City aside in impressive fashion earlier this month with just 27% of possession, so this is a contest where we are likely to have plenty of the ball. We need to be careful not to commit too many players forward though, as one of their core strengths is regaining the ball inside the middle third, before bursting forward rapidly on transitions.

In those situations, star man Gyokeres comes alive with his pace and outstanding movement, ready to spring into life with sprints down the side of central defenders, while attacking midfielder Francisco Trincao [above] is highly skilful operator who is clever at finding pockets of space in which to create.

Sporting have fashioned 14 ‘big chances’ in this season’s competition, a tally just four teams have exceeded, so this will be a stern test for us. To stand any chance of coming home with all three points, our off-the-ball work must be excellent.

Facts and stats

If Sporting fail to win, we will be the opponent they’ve faced the most times in European competition without ever winning (7).

We have only won one of our 11 away matches against Portuguese sides in major European competition, but that did come away at Sporting in October 2018.

Sporting are one of just six sides to remain unbeaten in this season’s Champions League, and this is their longest-ever unbeaten run in the competition.

Sporting have lost just one of their last 10 home games in Europe (W4 D5) with that defeat coming against Atalanta in the group stage of last season’s UEFA Europa League.

We are winless in our last five away games in the Champions League (D2 L3), failing to score in each of the last four.

Viktor Gyokeres has been directly involved in six goals in four Champions League appearances this season (5 goals, 1 assist), already the joint-most by a player in a single campaign for Sporting in the competition.

Among midfielders to have contested 10+ duels in the Champions League, the two players with the highest success rate are Declan Rice (79%) and Mikel Merino (75%). Meanwhile, the player with the best aerial duel success rate in the competition this term is Gabriel (86%).

Sporting’s Champions League opponents this season have seen 57% of their total touches come while under high-intensity pressure from an opposition player, the highest percentage for opposition sides against a specific opponent.

If the 17-year-old Geovany Quenda features for Sporting in this game, he will equal Ruben Neves for the most Champions League appearances by a Portuguese player aged under 18.

Match officials

One of the game’s most respected officials, Szymon Marciniak will be in charge of this game. The Pole has been refereeing top-flight matches in his homeland since 2009 and was added to the FIFA list two years later. After being selected for Euro 2016 and the 2018 World Cup, Marciniak oversaw the 2022 World Cup final and 2023 Champions League final.

He has never refereed us before, while it will be his first Sporting game in 12 years since a Europa League loss to Gent.

Referee: Szymon Marciniak (POL)
Assistants: Adam Kupsik, Radoslaw Siejka (POL)
Fourth official: Pawel Raczkowski (POL)
OUR: Tomasz Kwiatkowski (POL)
Assistant VAR: Jerome Brisard (FRA)

Previous meetings

This will be the fourth time we have been paired with Sporting in European competition, and we have yet to taste defeat in a one-off match. Our first encounter came back in 1969/70 when we drew 0-0 away from home before a John Radford goal and a George Graham brace saw us progress during our successful Fairs Cup run.

Then in 2018, we played two Europa League group games – Danny Welbeck’s strike saw us come out on top at the Estadio Jose Alvalade, before a 0-0 draw at Emirates Stadium booked our place in the knockout stages.

Five years later we met again in the same competition, as we drew 2-2 in Portugal. William Saliba put us in front before efforts from Goncalo Inacio and Paulinho turned things around, but a Hidemasa Morita own goal levelled things up again. A goalless draw in north London saw Sporting triumph on penalties to progress to the quarter-finals.

Live coverage

Tune into Arsenal.com and the official app from just before kick-off to listen to live commentary of the game, provided by our usual team of Dan Roebuck and Adrian Clarke.

You can also find out which broadcasters are showing the action live, wherever you are in the world.