Champions League build-up and VAR debate

More from Gunners gaffer Mikel Arteta on the different challenges this season compared to last:

"Game state is a big thing. Last season we scored early. We haven’t been able to do that often. The league is different. The players are different. The expectations are different.

"We have to find a way to be how we want to be. When I am in traffic I want to go 200 mph but it’s tricky. Game state is a big definer of that."

Mikel Arteta on knowing victory against Lens will guarantee top spot in their Champions League group:

"It's not easy to qualify out of the group, 100 per cent. You need to sweat and give a lot in games to win.

"It makes me proud and it makes me feel that this is the level this club should be at.

"We have come back to Europe to be the club that we want to be. To tell the people we are back in the way that we want to be."

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta on the importance of Bukayo Saka to the Gunners:

"He is targeted because he is one of our most dangerous players. What he’s done in the five years is remarkable – it’s very rare to see that at his age.

"The impact he has in games is crucial for us. Getting to the top is one thing but maintaining it is another.

"He has got the right mentality. The right family. The right advice round him. That’s what makes him special."

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Gunners boss Mikel Arteta confirms that midfielder Fabio Vieira missed training today after an unspecified operation and will be "out for weeks".

Arteta says Vieira went through with the op on a specialist's recommendation.

Arsenal attacker Leandro Trossard on being a two-footed player:

"I have been practicing all my life - it’s so hard to defend against when you are both-footed. I realised at 16/17 that I had to be even better on it to up my game.

"From the age of seven or eight, when I started playing football, my grandad said you need both. That’s why I am so comfortable on both."

On wanting more starts: "Everyone wants a run in the team obviously. Doesn’t matter if it's in different positions. It’s up to me to show up in every single game and also on the training pitch."

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The Arsenal media conference hit quite a lengthy delay but playmaker Leandro Trossard is speaking to reporters now, previewing Wednesday's Champions League game against French side Lens.

Stand by for the Belgian's comments and hopefully some to follow from boss Mikel Arteta...

The formation of the new organisation is quite a step from the WSL and Championship clubs.

The FA has run the WSL since it was launched in 2010.

A takeover had been planned for quite some time but has now been ratified - read more about the process that led to this point here.

More on the news that Women's Super League and Women's Championship clubs have agreed to form a club-owned organisation that will run women's professional football in England from the 2024/25 season.

NewCo will take control of the WSL and Women's Championship from the Football Association, with each club in the two top tiers acting as shareholders.

Former Nike director Nikki Doucet will be NewCo's chief executive. She is a businesswoman with a background in the sport and financial sectors.

You can read more on this breaking story here.

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Bayern Munich have announced that the club has extended the contract of captain Manuel Neuer, 37, and fellow goalkeeper Sven Ulreich, 35, by one year each until June 30, 2025.

Bayern CEO Jan-Christian Dreesen said: "Manuel Neuer and Sven Ulreich are simply a 'dream team'.

"It's fun to watch them at work every day.They support and motivate each other and exemplify the values ​​that characterise FC Bayern."

Neuer said: “I am happy to stay at FC Bayern for another year. After my long injury, I'm back on the attack again. I really enjoy being on the pitch with this team. I am convinced that together with the fans we can achieve our big goals in the next few years - and of course that includes the Champions League final in Munich in 2025."

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Apologies to those of you waiting for the best lines from Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta's press conference before Wednesday's game with Lens.

It seems the Gunners boss is running a bit late. We'll bring you his comments as soon as we can.

The move from the WSL and Championship clubs to set up a new organisation to run the women's professional game has the full support of the FA.

Baroness Sue Campbell, Director of Women’s Football for The Football Association, said: “The women’s professional game is in the strongest place that it has ever been thanks to the hard work of everybody involved in its development so far, but we firmly believe that the NewCo will take it to another level entirely.

“Each of our 24 clubs and the league itself wants the Barclays Women’s Super League and Barclays Women’s Championship to be setting the standards for women’s football around the world, and this venture into a new governing body is the next step in us achieving that ambition.

“This is a historical moment for the women’s professional game in this country, and it is a move that will see our clubs and players make even bigger strides both on and off the pitch.”

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• This will be Manchester City’s sixth Champions League match against RB Leipzig, winning three of the previous five. At Etihad Stadium, they have won 6-3 (September 2021) and 7-0 (March 2023).
• RB Leipzig have lost their past four away Champions League games in England by an aggregate score of 20-3. They are looking for their first away win in England since February 2020, when they won 1-0 against Tottenham.
• Manchester City are unbeaten in their past 17 games in the Champions League, with their last defeat coming in May 2022 against Real Madrid (semi-final second leg). In the history of the European Cup and Champions League, Manchester United are the only English team to have had a longer unbeaten run (25 games between September 2007 and May 2009).
• Erling Haaland has scored more goals against RB Leipzig than against any other team in his club career, netting 11 times in seven appearances.
• Twenty-year-old Xavi Simons has scored two goals in his last two Champions League appearances for RB Leipzig. Only one Dutch player aged under 21 has scored in three consecutive appearances in the competition, with a 19-year-old Patrick Kluivert doing so for Ajax in 1995 (aged 19).

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• Paris St-Germain’s first encounter with Newcastle was their 4-1 defeat on matchday two of this season’s UEFA Champions League. It was their heaviest defeat in their first game against an opponent in the competition since losing 3-0 to Chelsea in September 2004.
• After their 4-1 victory at St. James’ Park, Newcastle could become the first team to win home and away against Paris St-Germain in a Champions League group stage campaign since CSKA Moscow in 2004-05.
• Newcastle are yet to score away from home in the Champions League this season, drawing 0-0 with AC Milan and losing 2-0 away to Borussia Dortmund. They only attempted 16 shots across those two games.
• Kylian Mbappe has been involved in seven goals in 12 Champions League appearances against English sides, scoring five and assisting two. However, just one of those five goals has come in a home match (against Manchester City for Monaco in March 2017).
• Seven different Newcastle players have scored or assisted in the Champions League this season (four scorers, three assisters), but all of those came in the reverse fixture against Paris St-Germain at St. James’ Park.

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Spoke to Luke, a Newcastle fan who isn’t ruling anything out tonight. Victory could change everything, depending on what happens between Milan and Dortmund.

“Wherever happens, we’ve had a great run. We may as well go for it. They’ve got a great team but we can cause them problems,” he told me.

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SMS Message: If [Jarrad] Branthwaite isn't in the discussion I'm not sure who is. He's 21 and starting centre-back for a Premier League team. That screams class player to me. from Dáire, Belfast

If [Jarrad] Branthwaite isn't in the discussion I'm not sure who is. He's 21 and starting centre-back for a Premier League team. That screams class player to me.

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There have been discussions about David Raya, Aaron Ramsdale and goalkeepers but Arsenal still have the best defence.

I think it’s a case that as long as William Saliba and Gabriel stay fit and some of the other players in the defence do, then the rest of the noise around is irrelevant.

Do any of us really think they will pip Manchester City to the Premier League title? I don’t think so.

It is about balance, if you look back to the game earlier in the season against Man City, I can’t ever remember Man City being as shot shy as they were in this game. That was down to Arsenal being very defensively minded. They used to be famous for their back five.

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Former England defender Phil Jagielka has announced his retirement from professional football at the age of 41, having made over 800 appearances across a 23-year career.

Jagielka started his career at Sheffield United, where he spent eight seasons, before moving to Everton in 2007.

He would spend 12 years at Goodison Park, becoming club captain in 2013, before returning to the Blades in 2019 - spending two further seasons at Bramall Lane following the club's promotion to the Premier League.

Jagielka, who won 40 caps for England between 2008 and 2016 and featured at Euro 2012 and the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, also spent six months at Derby and finished his career with Stoke.

"All good things come to an end and after just over 800 appearances my playing career is done.

"Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine I would get to play football at the highest level for some amazing clubs as well as my country. It's been an absolute honour to step onto the grass for every match and I have so many people to thank for that."

I don’t necessarily think Arsenal are a defensively minded team, but I think it is about getting over the line and being ruthless.

It was actually a massive win for Arsenal [against Brentford] at the weekend.

It's a good sign, but I always think there will be those conversations about their attacking game and that lack of a centre forward.

The standard that Manchester City have set means it’s going to be hard for them to be knocked off the perch.