PSV Eindhoven vs Arsenal. Prediction and Preview. Probable Lineups, Team News, Stats and more
PSV Eindhoven will host Arsenal in the UEFA Europa League 5th group-stage at the Philips Stadium. The fixture will take place on October 27, beginning at 22:15 IST.
This Thursday night will bring us a match between two attacking and vibrant teams, both of whom were very close in their attempts to qualify for the UEFA Champions League. One thing is certain now, the two sides have their sights set on winning the trophy in the 2nd tier European club tournament.
Arsenal are going through all the tournaments on a veritable champion’s schedule. Mikel Arteta’s side have already achieved their objective of reaching the Europa League play-offs, and can now focus on the national championship and give their key players a rest.
However, standards are high and this match is not a walkover for the Londoners; the players will go into the match to get another three points against the strongest rival in the group. In the first place, it will give the team the right to jump directly into the 1/8 finals, which will give them a much needed breathing space in the schedule. Secondly, they also need to get a victory to boost their confidence and courage, because the Red-Whites are experiencing some stagnation based on the unconvincing results of recent matches. It is definitely wise to reset before the English Premier League games, as the Londoners are still in the lead and they have to keep up the momentum and have a winning mentality.
PSV, meanwhile, have not yet solved the problem of reaching the play-offs and remain in contention for a knockouts slot. The hosts hold on to second position in Group A, three points ahead of their nearest rival. But this is a rather shaky position, taking into account that the FK Bodø/Glimt are facing the underdogs of the group, FC Zurich (0 points after 4 rounds), in the parallel match. There, the Norwegians are very likely to prevail. It could also happen that the fate of the second place will be decided in the last 6th round – in a head-to-head game. In that case the risk, nervousness and pressure will be much higher than now. It will be really wise to resolve the issue in the upcoming encounter against Arsenal, especially when you have a home field factor in your possession.
Can Ruud van Nistelrooy cope with Mikel Arteta’s squad and get the important win to ensure themselves a place in the UCL 1/16 finals? Parimatchnews will tell you everything you need to know ahead of the upcoming match.
PSV Eindhoven News & Current Form:
PSV represent worthy opposition to Ajax in the Eredivisie this season, but another away defeat in round 11 (Groningen 4 : 2 PSV) has increased the gap from the leaders to 5 points, putting the head coach in a dilemma as he tries to spread the energy between the two tournaments.
Despite the fact that both in the league and in the UEL group the club from Eindhoven are only in second place, PSV are showing really interesting attacking upbeat football. After the departure of a number of important players in the off-season, Ruud van Nistelrooy has done a decent job in integrating new elements into the team’s attacking mechanism, which has helped his team to re-form without losing quality.
In the Dutch league, the Lightbulbs control the ball more often than most of their opponents (59.9% on average), and their performance in the box is linked with plenty of touch inside (33.4 per game) and successful dribbling (9.55 successful per game on 19.3 attempts). The Lightbulbs also often take shots, averaging 20 per match (to compare, Arsenal have 15.3 shots per league game). Cody Gakpo (13 goals + 13 assists in 20 games in all competitions) and his teammates have notched up 37 goals in Eredivisie. And if you’re not impressed by such figures, you can take a closer look at the home ground stats.
The Phillips Stadium appears to be a scene of goalscoring extravaganza. The results here since the start of the season have been 4-1, 7-1, 4-3, 5-0, 6-1. PSV clearly do not like to disappoint their home fans with a boring game – 5 out of 5 wins in the Dutch Championship and an average of 4.4 goals per game says it all. The fact that the upcoming game with the Gunners will be a goal-scoring affair is hinted at by the total number of goals scored by the team from Eindhoven in the group stage of Europa League. Here, PSV are second in terms of output (11) after Feyenoord (12), and the goal difference (+8) is excellent as well. It would seem that such a result, even in a group with Arsenal, is a play-off bid.
However, things are not so simple. The Dutch scored 10 goals out of 11 against Zurich, the group’s main underdog, but in their games against Arsenal and Bodo/Glimt they not only forgot about goals (scoring one goal in 2 matches) but also managed to get only one point. So, the supposed effectiveness in the Europa League and the domestic league is not transferable to the higher-ranked clubs. In the three Eredivisie games before Arsenal, for example, PSV scored 12 goals, but at the Emirates they made a miserable 0.32 xG and shot just once on target. The statistics are not encouraging, but PSV are a slightly different team at home as we know; the Londoners should prepare for an uphill battle.
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Arsenal News & Current Form:
Arsenal began the English Premier League 2022/2023 campaign on a strong footing. After some quality spot-fixing, the Gunners have amassed 28 points from 11 games in the domestic league. Is Mikel Arteta going for the long-awaited league title? Unfortunately, it will not be possible to repeat the legendary 2003/2004 season, in which the Invincible enjoyed a unique 38-game unbeaten run.
Newcomer Gabriel Jesus (5+5 in 14 games) has noticeably improved the team’s attacking power and variability. Combined with an improved passing culture and enhanced personal technique, the team are second only to Manchester City in terms of productive output.
The additions of Oleksandr Zinchenko and Fabio Vieira should also be mentioned, as they helped the team to find a better balance in attack and also provided opportunities for some players to step up their game. For instance, Granit Xhaka seems to be enjoying a renaissance in his career right now (4 goals + 3 assists in all competitions). It was the Swiss international who scored the winning goal in their last meeting with PSV (1-0). In the Europa League, the Gunners responded to one conceded goal with seven goals in total, which also speaks volumes about their reliability at the back.
Defensively, things are really posh. In 11 games, Aaron Ramsdale has conceded only 11 goals with 83.08% save percentage. Only Newcastle United have conceded less. The goalkeeper is helped by a coherent defensive line, where another addition – William Salba – can be seen as a main star. Ben White and Takehiro Tomiyasu have also adapted surprisingly well in their new positions. The benchmark for success at the LB position for the Japanese was the game against Liverpool, where he literally pocketed Mohamed Salah, with Jurgen Klopp even needing to replace the Egyptian to try and shake up the right flank of the attack.
The former Bologna defender was forced onto the left flank by injury to the previously mentioned Zinchenko, who has quickly become the crucial element that in addition to defensive duties serves as a synergistic hyper-link in the Martinelli-Xhaka-Zinchenko triangle.
The 25-year-old is still sidelined due to injury and it is not known when he will be back on the pitch. Unfortunately, Mikel Arteta does not want to talk about the player and has not made any comments for some time. The Ukrainian midfielder may have replaced any of the important core players in the upcoming clash, allowing some time off for key players.
“We bring the players that we have and we have brought four kids with us so we cannot even make up the squad, but we need to put 11 players out and they need to play – we cannot change those 11 players every game.”
says Arteta.
Nevertheless, Arteta’s mechanism is working properly. The elements of high pressing and counter-pressing when losing the ball have become fundamental in the Spanish specialist’s playing philosophy at the helm of the Londoners. Mikel Arteta’s men have never left the pitch without scoring a goal. And in the Premier League, the Red and Whites have average 2.27 goals per game (with 1 goal conceded on average). The Europa League figures are a little smaller, with the Spaniard’s charges scoring 1.75 goals per game, but the conceded goals are much lower too – 0.25 per every 90 minutes.
The Gunners’ main problem is that, following their mind-blowing performance against the Merseysiders (3-2), the Londoners have never scored more than one goal in all four games since. Here, however, credit must be given to Mikel Arteta – the team conceded just once, with the Cannoneers picking up 10 points in four games. Of those, the Londoners picked up six points in the Europa League and four in the EPL.
What is troubling is that all four of these games have seen a very similar pattern, except that Southampton managed to snatch points from the English leader in the last round (1-1).
Nothing critical happened, City are still behind by 2 points, but from the overall tendency it begins to look like Arsenal are tired, and it is the fatigue that affects the reduced scoring performance of the game.
The upcoming match may help stabilize the situation, if it meets two objectives at once – to score a lot of goals and to ensure a direct trip to the ⅛ finals.
The first will allow them to feel more confident in the Premier League at the weekend against Nottingham Forest, while accomplishing the second will give them the right to rotate the squad in the 6th round, as well as skip two matches of the 1/16 finals – a huge relief given the busy calendar this year.
Arsenal will try to squeeze out the maximum in the upcoming match to make life easier for themselves later on.
PSV Eindhoven form guide: W-W-W-W-L-L
Arsenal form guide: W-W-W-W-W-D
PSV Eindhoven vs Arsenal Head-To-Head Record:
| PSV Eindhoven | Draw | Arsenal |
| 1 | 3 | 3 |
The PSV-Arsenal matches have never produced a scattering of goals. Only once, in 2002, did the Gunners shock the Dutch (4-0), but since then there has never been more than two goals scored in seven official meetings with one team has never scored more than one goal.
And last week’s UEL match only confirmed this trend, as despite good form, the wards of Ruud were unable to register at least 1 goal at Emirates.
PSV Eindhoven vs Arsenal Predicted XI:
PSV Eindhoven possible starting lineup (4-2-3-1): Benitez; Mwene, Ramalho, Obispo, Max; Veerman, Sangare, Gutierrez; Simons, Til, Gakpo.
Arsenal possible starting lineup (4-1-4-1): Turner; Tomiyasu, Holding, Gabriel, Tierney; Xhaka, Lokonga; Saka, Vieira, Martinelli; Nketiah.
Statistical preview of the match PSV Eindhoven vs Arsenal:
- PSV Eindhoven have scored in 30 of the last 31 home games.
- Arsenal have scored in each of their last 16 games.
- Arsenal have not lost in 15 of the last 16 games.
- PSV Eindhoven have scored less than 2.5 goals in 5 of the last 6 Europa League home games.
- Arsenal have scored less than 2.5 goals in each of their last 4 games.
- PSV Eindhoven have not lost in 10 of the last 11 home games.
- Arsenal have won in 8 of the last 9 games.
What has been said before the match:
Ruud van Nistelrooy, the PSV Eindhoven gaffer:
“I’m confident that something like this won’t happen again against Arsenal once again. I evaluated those six minutes when we conceded the goal as an incident. There were several individual faults in a row. It shouldn’t happen, but it happens. You also have to score five goals and you score two. That’s the simple conclusion for me. Then you lose. That hurts. We are characters and we are in top sport. We are not made of sugar and move on to the next one.”
“I hope we can continue the way we played in the second half. Arsenal were the dominant side there, but in the first half they were completely dominant, we were very low in our block and we were pushed back far. In the second half we were able to hit the ball a bit more.”
Mikel Arteta, the Arsenal gaffer:
“Last week we made the first step to qualify to the next round, and now we need to win tomorrow because we want to finish first. This competition is getting harder and harder and how it looks today and what the possibilities are, it looks like the next round will be extremely competitive. That’s why finishing first in the group and avoiding another two games is such an important thing for us.”
PSV Eindhoven vs Arsenal Prediction:
PSV can inspire fear with their form at the Phillips Stadium where they frequently thrash their opponents. Performance in the Europa League group stage is also impressive. Yet it’s just an illusion – in matches against high-level opponents, the Dutch super forwards literally disappear, and that’s exactly what we saw in the game at the Emirates. Moreover, the Dutch are approaching the match on a 2 defeat losing streak, which negatively affects the overall morale of the hosts.
And in the next game, Arsenal, who have conceded just one goal in their past four meetings in all competitions, will be on the other side of the pitch. And such reliability is shown by the Red and Whites during a period of certain stagnation.
Given that the Londoners are simply superior in class and hold an advantage in the group, it is their scenario that will govern the match; if the Gunners approach the match pragmatically, there will be few goals. In such circumstances, the Lightbulbs may want to attack involving all of their players, which in turn will lead to opportunities for the Londoners to counter-attack. Considering that PSV conceded the most in the Eredivisie top 7 (18), it would be easy for the Red and Whites to get the upper hand in attack and take the 3 points without too much stress. In addition, the head-to-head encounters simply scream that PSV and Arsenal’s matches usually turn out to be low-scoring, and the last time this pair organized more than two goals was 20 years ago.
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Parimatch News staff prediction:
We say: Arsenal will not lose and the match total is less than 3.5 – Yes..