• Arteta could make five changes in today’s line up

Bayern Munich star, Joshua Kimmich, has stressed the difficulty of the upcoming clash with Arsenal in the third round of matches in the UEFA Champions League, with France’s Michael Olise unavailable through suspension after being sent off during the 3-3 draw with Viking in the previous round.

As reports by “Sky”, Kimmich said of the Arsenal encounter: “We have one or two players carrying a few knocks after today’s match (the 6-1 win over Leipzig in the Bundesliga), and I hope it’s nothing serious.”

The Germany international continued: “Michael Olise won’t be available because of the red card. Obviously that makes things more difficult for us, especially when it comes to replacing a player like him, in a big match like this.”

“But we have a lot of quality in the squad, and we’ll give everything we have,” he added. “I’m really looking forward to the match.”

Also speaking on Olise’s absence, star striker Harry Kane said the French star’s absence hands somebody else a chance to prove what they can do.

The England star said: “Of course we’ll miss one of our players, and now other players have to step up and take their chance. That’s the nature of the competition at Bayern Munich.”

His verdict on the mood around the club was blunt: “When we don’t win, there’s always more talk and the usual noise. So it was important that we kept calm and avoided mistakes, and that’s what we did from start to finish. The performance was excellent. When you score 6 goals against an opponent like Leipzig, you can feel very proud.”

Arsenal have won both of the Champions League games they have played this season but today they face one of the tournament favourites in Bayern Munich.

An away win at Napoli was followed by a 3-0 victory over Lille at Emirates Stadium last week but Mikel Arteta now must try and navigate past the German giants at the Allianz Arena. Speaking after Sunday’s 1-0 win at Nottingham Forest, Arteta called on his team to be ready.

“I think it depends on the game and the way the opposition wants to play,” the Gunners boss said on grinding out results.

“Today was a different one to Lille, and will be extremely different to three days’ time against Bayern Munich, which will be 96 minutes man-to-man, and let’s go. But we adapt, learn, and try to make the margins bigger.”

Vincent Kompany will want a response from his team after they could only draw to Viking FK last week. The Bundesliga side did smash five goals past Bodo/Glimt on the opening matchday, though, reports football.london.

Bayern have had one extra day of rest as they played on Saturday, with Luis Diaz netting a hat-trick in a 6-1 rout of RB Leipzig. Arteta may want to freshen things up then and that could start at right-back.

Ben White started Sunday’s vital win at the City Ground but could take his place on the bench if Jurrien Timber is fancied from the start.

It will be interesting to see if Riccardo Calafiori is also given a rest. The Italian played the whole 90 minutes in Nottingham but Myles Lewis-Skelly could come in at left-back. The Hale Ender impressed against Lille and would offer fresh legs given he did not come off the bench at the weekend.

In midfield, it was Bruno Guimaraes, Declan Rice and Martin Odegaard from the off in Nottingham. You would think Martin Zubimendi starts, possibly for Guimaraes, as Arteta may want to keep Rice and Odegaard in the team given their experience and quality.

Moving to the front three, Bukayo Saka will most definitely start and Noni Madueke has probably done enough to start on the left given his heroics against Forest. It’s a toss up between Viktor Gyokeres and Kai Havertz for the striker role and the Swede may just edge it given he has started the two previous Champions League matches.
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