Mikel Arteta has made minimal changes for the game of Arsenal against Bournemouth, while Luis Enrique changed all PSG stars for the meeting against Strasbourg, but one after all PSG stars
Mikel Arteta and Luis Enrique have enormously different approaches to their domestic luminaires between their Champions League-Semi-final collision with Arsenal on almost full available force against Bournemouth taken on Saturday evening, while Paris Saint-Germain brought ten changes for their journey to Strasbourg.
The Enrique side declined a Ligue 1 title last month, which means that they had little tangible to play in Strasbourg. And the head coach decided to let all his big names rest, whereby only Joao Neves keeps his starting position of their 1-0 victory at the Emirates.
Arsenal, on the other hand, is still looking for a top-five place to guarantee Champions League football for next season and with a long injury list, Arteta has no one with Martin Odegaard and Bukayo Saka, all taken against the cherries.
Thomas Partey, who was suspended against PSG for the first stage, has returned to midfield with only Mikel Merino and Jurrien Timber who left the starting XI, while Ben White also came back immediately.
Before the game was asked if he could see any similarities between PSG and Bournemouth in terms of how they insist, where the Arsenal -Baas said that they might be ideal competition opponents to prepare for the second stage in Parc des Princes on Wednesday evening.
“Certainly in terms of intensity and how they approach every duel,” said Arteta. “When playing, they are a bit different. They want to achieve things that look very similar to PSG in certain ways.
“It's not to practice them. It is just very efficient and very good at what we have to do against them to play the way we want.”
Arsenal remains without seven players, although Arteta has hinted that one of Kai Havertz, Jorginho and Riccardo Calafiori can be fit enough to go to the city of love. Havertz has been running out with a hamstring injury in Dubai since February, but the Germany star is expected to play again this season, while Jorginho and Calafiori both have more problems in the short term.
“I wouldn't exclude them all,” said Arteta. “Let's take a look in the coming days how I feel that they react.”