Attack vs. defense? Beauty vs. the beast? Art vs. science?Even if that’s too simplistic a way of looking at the Champions League final between Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal on Saturday, it pretty much sums up the clash of styles likely to be on show at the Puskás Aréna in Budapest.In one corner is Luis Enrique’s PSG, the top scorer in this season’s Champions League with 44 goals — that’s an average of more than three per game — and the clinical, relentless juggernaut that blew away Inter Milan 5-0 in last year’s title match for the biggest win in a final in the competition’s 70-year history.In the other is Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal, the newly crowned English champion which owns by far the Champions League’s meanest defense, a smothering off-the-ball set-up, and the most efficient, advanced set-piece threat around.The unstoppable force vs. the immovable object?
Something like that.If anyone has the tools to stop PSG from becoming just the second team to retain the title in the Champions League era, it’s surely Arteta.Here’s why:
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‘Best team’ at defendingLuis Enrique is in no doubt.“They’re the best defensive team in Europe,” the PSG coach said of Arsenal, “and they have been for a few years.”The statistics bear this out.In this season’s Champions League, Arsenal has kept nine clean sheets — three more than any other team —and let in just six goals in its 14 games. Two of those goals came in the final round, a dead match against Kairat Almaty because Arsenal had already qualified. PSG, by comparison, has conceded 22 goals.
