Mikel Arteta has decisions to make in what is, no question, the biggest game of his managerial career.
When Arsenal face Paris Saint-Germain on Saturday night, the Gunners boss looks to end the club’s long wait to at last win European football’s premier club crown. Having just ended their 22 year wait for the Premier League, there is confidence that the time is right for the Gunners to finally win the Champions League.
However, they do enter the Puskas Arena in Budapest as slight underdogs against Luis Enrique’s all-conquering PSG side. The holders, fresh from seeing off Bayern Munich in the semi-finals, ended what had become an obsession with Europe’s biggest prize by finally winning it last season, walloping Inter Milan in the final with a devastating attacking display. They have no interest in relinquishing their crown.
The Arsenal boss cannot afford to get his team wrong. The margins are so tight. Arsenal are waiting on Jurrien Timber, to see if he is fit enough to do battle with PSG's outstanding star, Khvicha Kvaratskelia.
In attack, Kai Havertz or Viktor Gyokeres will lead the line. Will it be the patience and nuance of Havertz - scorer of a Champions League final winner for Chelsea - who starts, or will it be the pace and power of the Swede, who played a major role in bullying Atletico Madrid's defence in the semi-final. Perhaps you keep Gyokeres in reserve, hoping there is more space for him to attack the deeper the game goes.
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Perhaps the biggest dilemma facing Arteta comes with regard the make up of his side's midfield. There are questions over the balance.
Martin Odegaard, the captain, will start. So too will Declan Rice. Those are givens. But who is in the middle with that pair? Deciding who that third person is changes the entire complexion of the midfield, but also the whole side.
If Martin Zubimendi gets the nod to sit as the No.6 in front of the back four, then it frees up Rice to play more as a No.8, to make his mark on the game and use his physicality, with Odegaard a little more free to stay higher up the field and take the ball in his favoured inside right channel, while directly engaging PSG playmaker Vitinha when out of possession.
But start with Eberechi Eze, and suddenly Rice has to be locked in as the back four's protector and play operate in a more reserved manner. Odegaard would have more defensive responsibility in deeper areas too and while the side as a whole probably carries greater attacking threat, the midfield suddenly looks more vulnerable in those pockets to Rice's left or right, where Ousmane Dembele and Desire Doue like to get involved.
Or, as in the semi-final with Atletico Madrid, do you go with the tenacity of Myles Lewis-Skelly, add him alongside Rice as a two-man base, using their acumen that when one sits the other goes and vice versa, flipping the midfield from one deep and two in front, to two deep with Odegaard as a bona-fide No.10. More 4-2-3-1 than 4-3-3.
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On paper, Rice-Odegaard-Eze looks the most attacking combo, while Rice-MLS-Odegaard is perhaps the most defensively minded. Zubimendi, so good in the second half of the Euro 2024 Final for Spain vs England, was signed to play in games like this and perhaps brings the best balance, but he has looked tired in recent months and his general levels have dropped after an outstanding first six months in North London.
Who Arteta chooses in his midfield is just one fascinating subplot ahead of a final that has all the ingredients to be a classic.
Who he chooses, and how it plays out, are likely to prove decisive in Budapest.
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