Stepping into the enormous shoes of Ruben Amorim, new Sporting coach Joao Pereira faces his first major test of his managerial mettle against Arsenal in the Champions League on Tuesday night.
But the former Portugal right-back certainly cannot say that he has been handed a hospital pass from the man who departed surprisingly in the early weeks of the new campaign, Ruben Amorim chosen by Manchester United to replace Erik ten Hag.
Not only are Sporting cruising at the top of the Primeira Liga table with 11 wins out of 11, Pereira also inherits a team flying high in the revamped Champions League.
Only Arne Slot’s picture-perfect Liverpool have more points against their name than Sporting’s 10. And with Arsenal arriving in Lisbon on the back of an insipid 1-0 loss at Inter Milan, Pereira knows that another famous victory over English opposition – Sporting destroyed Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City 4-1 at the Estadio Jose Alvalade last time out – can put qualification to the knockout stages within The Lions grasp.
Though Pereira knows that, with Arsenal boasting game-breaking talents such as Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli, it will take another superhuman effort from his green-and-white charges to maintain their unbeaten European run.
Sporting boss highlights Arsenal duo Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli
“Arsenal have great players,” Pereira says during his pre-match press conference. “They are strong one-on-one with Bukayo Saka and Martinelli.
“And there is also the situation of their attacking tactics, with many goals and opportunities.
“There’s no hiding it, the level of difficulty will increase. But I think we’re ready. Everyone knows that Arsenal have seven points, have only conceded one goal from a penalty, are very strong defensively and will certainly try to create problems up front, where they are very strong.”
“The biggest [problem Sporting have] is the little time we have to train. But that is also positive from a sporting point of view, it means we can continue to compete in all the competitions.
“We have to recover more than we have to train.”
Mikel Arteta refuses to speak out on Viktor Gyokeres
Mikel Arteta’s side produced their most fluid, threatening performance in weeks against Nottingham Forest on Saturday. The returning Martin Odegaard inspired Arsenal’s 3-0 win over Nuno Espirito Santo’s men, while teen sensation Ethan Nwaneri produced a dazzling cameo to give his hopes of more regular minutes an almighty shot in the arm.
Saka’s thumping finish to open the scoring against Forest, meanwhile, was his first in five matches.
Sporting’s own attacking talisman, in contrast, has not gone more than two games without finding the net in 2024/25. TBR understands that Arsenal are monitoring Viktor Gyokeres closely with a centre-forward likely to be high on The Gunners’ wishlist heading into 2025.
At the moment, however, Arsenal are focusing not on signing Gyokeres – who has over 30 goals this term for club and country – but stopping him.
“I understand the question but they have a lot of individual qualities,” Arteta said during his own pre-match presser, keen to point out that Sporting’s threat does not begin and end with Gyokeres.
“That’s why they can win games in various ways. And, yes, in the specific positions they have great players.
“I would like to talk about the team, about the coaches and how phenomenal they have been. The run they are on is incredible. That tells you that it is not only the quality, the setup, the ambition, it is something about the team energy that they have.
“That is a great challenge that we have, to come here and make a statement and show we are capable against this kind of opponent. [We must] be ourselves and win the game.”
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