Mikel Arteta praises ‘exceptional’ PSG ahead of reunion with former team | OneFootball

Tomorrow evening Arsenal will host Paris Saint-Germain in the second match of the Champions League league phase. It will be a reunion for Mikel Arteta with the team that launched his professional career.

Midway through the 2000/01 season, Barcelona sent Arteta on loan to the French capital where he would spend the next year and a half. In Paris, he played alongside Ronaldinho and Mauricio Pochettino in a side that won the UEFA Intertoto Cup, the last piece of European silverware that Les Parisiens have secured.

For the Arsenal manager, the loan spell was the springboard to wider success and he had warm words ahead of PSG’s visit for a club that had once been rumoured to be courting the highly-rated coach. “I’m still grateful to the club that believed in me at the age of 17.”

Mikel Arteta: ‘Their intentions are very clear.’

He continued by assessing the current side that he will soon face, “They are an exceptional team. They are really very strong. They dominate all phases of the game. Their intentions are very clear. When they don’t have the ball, they want to win it back straight away and they confront you. That’s Luis Enrique, that’s his way of doing things and that’s their greatest strength.”

PSG will be looking to continue an impressive start to the season. The club have won all their games except against Stade de Reims and will be hoping to bring this form into a daunting visit to the Emirates Stadium.

GFFN | Nick Hartland