Atalanta vs Arsenal Preview

Last year’s Europa League winners, Atalanta, will begin their journey towards another European campaign this season with a home game against Arsenal.

Atalanta has enjoyed a stop-start yet entertaining start to the season. This continued on Sunday as the reigning Europa League champions came from behind to beat Fiorentina 3-2, with all the goals in the first half. With their four league fixtures this term (W2, L2) producing an average of four goals per game, they could be an entertaining team to follow in the Champions League this season.

After losing the Super Cup 2-0 to Real Madrid last month, La Dea will be keen to kickstart their European campaign with a win as they return to the Champions League for the first time since 2021/22. This is their fourth Champions League group/league phase participation, and on each occasion, they’ve met English opponents (W1, D2, L3), with last season producing a memorable 3-1 aggregate win over Liverpool en route to Europa League glory.

Meanwhile, Arsenal will travel to Bergamo in high spirits after recording their third win in an unbeaten season against Tottenham at the weekend (1-0 win). Mikel Arteta’s side beat their North London rivals away despite missing key players due to injury and suspension.

Declan Rice was one of those, but he’ll be available for this one, which will make Arsenal supporters happier ahead of a big week in which they also take on Premier League champions Manchester City. The Gunners travel having only won one of their last six Champions League away games (D1, L4), but they’ve fared better in Italy of late, having won their last two European fixtures in the country ‘to nil’ against Napoli and AC Milan respectively, albeit those matches were in the Europa League knockout stages before Arteta took over.