Lille at the Emirates in your Champions League tie
Arsenal host Lille on Tuesday at 21:00 CEST at the Emirates, Champions League league phase matchday 2 (1) (2) (5). Lille arrive second in Ligue 1 and lost their opener to Real Betis, so they travel to London needing a result (8) (9). Davide Ancelotti is the Lille coach (1).
Two freak injuries in the post-match cool-down
Mikel Arteta says Arsenal lost two players to ankle injuries during a post-match cool-down after the Leeds game, something he says has "never happened in seven years" at the club (7). Piero Hincapie's injury is the more serious of the two (7). The timing is brutal, days before Lille (7).
Giroud comes back
Olivier Giroud returns to the Emirates with Lille (2) (4). Arteta on his former teammate: "Vi var holdkammerater. Først og fremmest er han en fantastisk fyr og en person, der bidrager positivt til stemningen i omklædningsrummet" (4). Giroud was at Arsenal from 2012 to 2018 (4).
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Arsenal 2–1 Leeds
Your last match was a comeback home win over Leeds in the Premier League on Saturday, October 10 (7) (11). That keeps Arsenal second on 15 points from six games, with form W W W L W and a goal difference of +5 (11).
Calafiori, a total player
Arteta on Riccardo Calafiori: "Puede ser un jugador total" (3). The defender has been involved in four goals this season (3).
Intermediaries ask about Dani Olmo
Intermediaries have sounded out Arsenal and other English clubs, including Tottenham, Liverpool and Manchester United, over Barcelona's Dani Olmo ahead of the winter market (13). The 28-year-old Spain international's future is starting to get talked about (13). This is unconfirmed.
The Emirates is 20 and showing its age
No major expansion. Arsenal want to upgrade the stadium gradually rather than do one big rebuild: "Nous partageons la volonté de faire évoluer progressivement l'Emirates Stadium, plutôt que de réaliser un changement de grande envergure" (6). Twenty years in, the ground has issues in the stands (6).
What comes next
Nottingham Forest away in the Premier League on Sunday, October 18 at 17:30 CEST, then Bayern Munich away in the Champions League on Wednesday, October 21 at 21:00 CEST (1) (12).
Fan reactions
The mood on r/Gunners is split between hype for the Lille night and nostalgia. Giroud's own words about leaving in January 2018, "I was really sad to leave the club," are doing the rounds, and an article on Arsenal's bespoke typeface has the design nerds talking. Lionel Messi naming Max Dowman among his top ten rising stars also got a thread going. Giroud on leaving Arsenal
