Arteta’s Bold Plan for Champions League Final Against PSG
Arteta’s boldest Champions League final call may already be hiding in plain sight.
On the eve of Arsenal’s showdown with PSG, the headlines have fixated on one problem above all others: how do you stop Khvicha Kvaratskhelia on the biggest club stage of all?
A clue from a cold night in Tbilisi
Scroll back to last November. Spain in Georgia, a World Cup qualifier, a routine 4-0 away win. Buried in the highlights is a sequence UEFA resurfaced on X this week.
Martin Zubimendi, playing in midfield, sprints down the flank, hunts down Kvaratskhelia and cleanly strips him of the ball. No fuss, no drama. Just sharp reading of the game, timing, and a tackle that snaps the attack dead.
That clip has been doing the rounds for a reason. Tomorrow, Arsenal face a version of the same problem, but with the stakes multiplied. PSG’s superstar will demand a specific plan, and Mikel Arteta is weighing up whether that plan involves a midfielder in an unfamiliar role.
Timber, Mosquera… or something radical?
The obvious solution would be Jurrien Timber. On paper, he is tailor‑made for this kind of assignment: quick, aggressive, comfortable defending one-on-one in wide areas.
The reality is harsher. Timber only returned to training this week and has not played since mid-March, when a groin injury against Everton halted his season. Being medically fit is one thing. Being ready to walk into a Champions League final against one of the world’s most devastating wingers is quite another.
Cristhian Mosquera is pushing hard. He has the pace to cope and the profile of a modern defender, but he is a centre-back by trade. Shifting him wide would ask a lot of his mobility and agility over repeated sprints and changes of direction, the kind of movements Kvaratskhelia forces from his marker all night.
So Arteta has turned to an old habit: thinking differently.
Zubimendi’s Palace audition
Last weekend at Crystal Palace, the team sheet raised eyebrows. Zubimendi, the metronome of Arsenal’s midfield for much of the season, was suddenly stationed at right-back.
It looked random. It probably wasn’t.
Arteta rarely experiments without a purpose. Giving Zubimendi a run at full-back days before a final, then watching UEFA circulate footage of him shackling Kvaratskhelia for Spain, feels more like a deliberate stress test than a whim.
The Spaniard’s defensive intelligence is not in doubt. He reads danger early, closes space quickly and tackles cleanly. That Georgia clip underlines it: he understood exactly when to engage, and he did not dive in recklessly. Against PSG, that kind of composure could be priceless.
The midfield squeeze
There is another layer to this dilemma. Zubimendi has, quietly, lost his automatic starting spot in recent weeks. Myles Lewis-Skelly’s surge in form has reshaped the midfield picture, with the Englishman staking a strong claim alongside Declan Rice.
Dropping Lewis-Skelly now would be a brutal call. He has injected energy and balance into the centre of the pitch, and there is every chance Arteta sticks with that pairing to control the middle against PSG.
That leaves Zubimendi in an awkward limbo. Too important to ignore, but no longer guaranteed his old role. For a manager who values what the Spaniard has given him across the season, leaving him out entirely would sting.
So the touchline solution starts to make more sense. Use Zubimendi at full-back, keep Lewis-Skelly and Rice in the engine room, and trust that the midfielder’s intelligence and previous experience against Kvaratskhelia can translate to this stage.
The favourite – and the wild card
Right now, Mosquera still feels like the safer, more orthodox pick if Timber does not make it. He is a defender by instinct, he understands the physical duels, and he has built trust in his natural position.
Yet the context of the week tells its own story. Timber’s absence at Palace, his lack of minutes since March, the sudden right-back audition for Zubimendi, and the resurfaced Spain footage all feed into the same question: does Arteta lean on the specialist defender, or does he gamble on the midfielder with the brain – and one very relevant tackle – lodged in his manager’s mind?
If Timber fails to prove his readiness, nobody should be shocked if the Arsenal coach reaches for the bolder option and tosses Zubimendi in at full-back.
In a final defined by fine margins, that single selection could decide whether Kvaratskhelia runs riot – or runs into a familiar problem.
