Preview: Arsenal v Atletico Madrid

With two Champions League wins in the bag, we are just one of six teams left in the competition looking to maintain a 100% start when Atletico Madrid come to north London on Tuesday (8pm).

It what promises to be our sternest European test so far this term, Los Rojiblancos’ star-studded squad arrive on these shores with plenty of firepower, having netted in all of their games this term. But that record will be put to the test in N5, as we have incredibly won 11 consecutive Champions League group and league phase home matches without conceding.

Diego Simeone’s team have suffered some patchy form in La Liga, and have yet to win in five on the road this term across all competitions including a heartbreaking defeat at Liverpool on matchday one. That extended a woeful record in England, which had seen them prevail once in 11 matches, a fact we hope to exploit as we go in search of our 100th victory in the Champions League proper.

Slow start switching?

A summer recruitment drive saw long-serving Cesar Azpilicueta, Axel Witsel, Angel Correa, Saul, Rodrigo De Paul, and Thomas Lemar all depart, allowing Simone to refresh his squad. Alex Baena, American midfielder Johnny Cardoso, Argentine playmaker Thiago Almada, Euro 2020 winner Giacomo Raspadori and Slovakian defender David Hancko arrived for big money, while Nico Gonzales was loaned from Juventus.

Bedding in those new faces initially saw Atletico struggle, as they were victorious in just one of their first five La Liga games. However a 3-2 win over Rayo Vallacano courtesy of a Julian Alvarez hat-trick was followed by a 5-2 demolition of Real Madrid, the first time they’d hit five against their bitter rivals for 75 years, with Alvarez bagging a brace. On Saturday, a goal from Almada was enough to beat Osasuna on what was Simeone's 750th game as their boss, moving them up to fourth in the table but eight points behind the leaders.

The Champions League campaign began with a thrilling 3-2 defeat at Liverpool, as Atleti recovered from being 2-0 down after six minutes to draw level, only for Virgil van Dijk to score a stoppage-time winner. They responded with a 5-1 win over Eintracht Frankfurt when Antoine Griezmann netted his 200th strike for the club.

What the managers say

Arteta: "On this one, I think the hardest thing is the time that you have. It’s basically a day when you can't really do much to prepare, so it’s understanding the time that we have to spend to analyse and understand that. They have evolved as well as a team from where they were probably a year ago to now, and how they can change in relation to the context of the match, which is something very specific for this team.

"In order to prepare in the best way, you want to give [the players] everything, but be able to simplify the information and make it as concrete and as clear as possible for us being in the best position to implement what we want to do tomorrow." - every word from Mikel’s pre-match press conference

Simeone: "We envision an intense match, with their pressing in the opponent's half, which they do very well, but they also drop back and are very good at recovering and transitioning. With a very clear game plan, from there, with our characteristics, we will try to take the match to where we believe we can hurt them.

"The first thing that comes to mind is that they have great ball strikers, tall players, good headers, and they work with a lot of intelligence. It’s a huge strength; in 2014 we won matches that way. It’s a way for them to win games."

Team news

Piero Hincapie continues to edge closer to a first-team return following his groin issue sustained a month ago, but Martin Odegaard, Noni Madueke, Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus remain out of contention due to their respective knee injuries.

After receiving yellow cards in both of our opening two Champions League fixtures, Martin Zubimendi and Declan Rice are one booking away from a one-game suspension.

Left-back Nico Gonzalez was forced off with a head injury during the first half of Saturday's win over Osasuna but has been included in the travelling party.

Johnny Cardoso has been out for four weeks with an ankle injury and hasn’t flown to London, but former Tottenham defender Clement Lenglet is available again following a domestic ban.

Talking tactics

Adrian Clarke, writing in the official matchday programme: Simeone has started with a 4-4-2 formation in most games this season. It’s a bold shape he used in major tests against Real Madrid and Liverpool, scoring seven times across those two fixtures, so it is their most likely set-up.

The Argentine has gradually moved away from a compact and physical defence-focused style in recent seasons, opting for a far more attacking approach. Confident at popping the ball around they have made sequences of 10 or more passes 40 times across their opening two Champions League fixtures, only behind Manchester City and Bayern Munich. They are still balanced enough to flip to a counter-attacking style when it suits them, scoring four goals from fast breaks already in 2025/26.

Atletico’s squad contains plenty of natural goalscorers, but we must also be watchful of right-back Marcos Llorente’s forward runs. Only three players have made more ball carries in La Liga than the adventurous 30-year-old [above], who loves to pop up inside the final third. We saw that at Anfield last month when Llorente scored twice in a 3-2 loss at Liverpool. Their set plays also need to be respected.

Protecting leads away from home has been an issue for Atletico. They have taken the lead in all five La Liga away matches so far, yet they have earned just three points - and zero victories. Simeone’s side are vulnerable to counter-attacks. Far more open than they used to be, they are sometimes guilty of leaving gaps which can be exploited, and they have yet to keep a clean sheet on the road.

Facts and stats

Since the start of last season, we have won eight of our 10 Champions League group stage matches, the joint-most of any side in that period alongside Liverpool and Inter Milan.

We have won both of our last two Champions League games 2-0, and could win three in a row without conceding for the first time since October 2007.

Atletico Madrid have not drawn any of their last 19 matches in the Champions League, winning 13 and losing six.

We are one of only two sides – along with Inter Milan – who haven’t conceded a goal in the Champions League this season. We rank first for xG against (0.85) in the competition this term.

Bukayo Saka has been directly involved in 17 goals in 19 appearances in the Champions League (11 goals, six assists). Since his debut in the competition in 2023, Saka has the second-best minutes per goal involvement ratio of any winger (89 – min. 500 minutes per goal involvement), only behind Barcelona’s Raphinha (69).

Julian Alvarez has scored 13 goals in 11 Champions League appearances since the start of 2023/24. In this period, he is the player who has exceeded his xG total by the biggest margin in the competition (+7.6 – 13 goals from 5.4 expected goals).

Gabriel Martinelli has scored three goals across his last five European games, as many strikes as in his previous 34 appearances.

Match officials

Experienced official Davide Massa has been overseeing matches in his nation’s top-flight for 14 years. It’ll be his first return to Emirates Stadium since our 3-0 win against Monaco last December, which was his fourth match of ours, following on from a 2-1 Europa League defeat to Olympiakos back in February 2020 plus wins at Qarabag and Eintracht Frankfurt in that competition between 2018 and 2019.

His last Atleti match saw him issue red cards to Pablo Barrios and now-Gunner Hincapie as they beat Bayer Leverkusen 2-1 in the league phase back in January. Across his seven matches in all competitions this season, Massa has shown 25 yellow cards but no reds, and has awarded just one penalty.

Referee: Davide Massa (ITA)

Assistant: Filippo Meli, Stefano Alassio (ITA)

Fourth official: Matteo Marcenaro (ITA)

VAR: Daniele Chiffi (ITA)

Assistant VAR: Jerome Brisard (FRA)

Previous meetings

The only previous meetings between ourselves and Atletico Madrid in Europe came in the semi-finals of the 2017/18 Europa League. Things were looking promising for us in the home leg when Sime Vrsalijko was sent off 10 minutes in and Alexandre Lacazette put us in front, but his international teammate Griezmann struck eight minutes from time to level things up heading to Spain.

There, Diego Costa’s finish put the hosts ahead just before half-time, and they held on to their lead to extinguish Arséne Wenger’s final hope of finishing his legendary tenure with a first European trophy. Atleti went on to beat Marseille 3-0 in the final, with Griezmann scoring twice.

However, Atleti have never won away to an English side in the group/league phase of the Champions League, failing in all five attempts to date (D2 L3). Los Rojiblancos have also only won one of their last nine matches against English sides in European competition (D2 L6), against Manchester United in the second leg of a last 16 tie in the Champions League in March 2022.

Live coverage

For the best build-up to the game, tune into our matchday show Live From N5, where Nicole Holliday will be joined by club legend Gilberto Silva.

British table tennis champion Tom Jarvis is with us after giving Jeremie Aliadiere a crash course in how to play like a pro, while we catch up with Mikel Merino at the training ground to find out how he's been enjoying our flying start to the season.

We'll pick our Hero of the Week, Nicole and Jeremie will debate this week's entry to the Live from N5 Hall of Fame, our supporters will be put to the test with another round of Arsenal Mastermind, and our Time Capsule is opened for another round as another Gooner attempts to get to the top of the leaderboard.

Then, when it's time for the main event, live commentary is provided by Dan Roebuck and Perry Groves - so make sure you tune into Arsenal.com and the official app for all the fun!

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