'Very big test' - Mikel Arteta has already told Arsenal what will happen tonight in PSG Champions League clash

Mikel Arteta has already told his Arsenal squad what to expect as they prepare to face Paris Saint-Germain in the next league game of the UEFA Champions League.

The two clubs will come face-to-face later this evening, Tuesday 1 October at 7.45pm, with the Gunners head coach facing a club with whom he enjoyed a hugely successful loan spell from Barcelona in the 2001/02 season.

Speaking to the media ahead of the Ligue 1 giants’ arrival at the Emirates, Arteta spoke of PSG head coach Luis Enrique’s ability to ‘transform’ the French club and of the ‘unbelievable power’ of his former Barcelona teammate.

“You can see at PSG it’s his team - the way the players behave, the way they want to attack,” Arteta said of the PSG head coach. “They want to dominate games, the spirit, the energy that they have. He has this unbelievable power. And then his approach to life, to his profession – it’s something to really look at and I learnt a lot of things from him.

“I admire his honesty. He’s straightforward – he will look in your eyes and tell you what he thinks. In the end, players appreciate that. They might like it more or less, depending how it happens, but I have had two or three players here who were with him in the national team, and they always said the same thing.

“They all enjoy playing under him. When somebody can make you feel like that in this profession, it’s a big quality to have. He has won every competition you can imagine in his career. He has transformed a club that has a very clear identity under him, so it is a very big test for us.”

The Emirates boss is one of just five players to have played for both Arsenal and PSG: David Luiz, Nicolas Anelka, Kaba Diawara and Lassana Diarra making up the remaining four.

During the pre-match press conference, Arteta was also asked about his time with the French side, during which he played 53 games, won the UEFA Intertoto Cup and had Brazilian ace Ronaldinho as a roommate.

Arriving at the Parisian club at the age of 18, Arteta said the club ‘protected (him) like a son’ and admitted having spent time with teammates such as Anelka, Mauricio Pochettino and Ronaldinho, the managerial seed was planted in him.

“In a club of that size and city, which is probably the most beautiful one in Europe, it’s an experience that will stay with me forever”, the Arsenal boss said. “With team-mates that shaped who I want to be as a player, and I think igniting in me something to become a manager. We had Ronaldinho, Jay-Jay Okocha, Nicolas Anelka, Mauricio Pochettino, Gabriel Heinze. They were all unbelievable.

“I wanted to stay there but I was at that moment owned by Barcelona and they didn't find an agreement and then I had to do something else. I was so happy there, I wanted to stay there but in the end, I had to do something. This is football.

“It was terrifying for me, it was for my family. We were in Barcelona when we got the phone call: ‘You need to pack your bags and fly to Paris, now’. I had not played any professional football and you look at those names, ‘are they sure?’. But you get there and Luis Fernandez was the manager, he was the one that believed in me. They protected me like a son.”

Arsenal vs PSG will be available to watch on Amazon Prime. Head to LondonWorld’s article on How to watch Arsenal vs PSG to find out more.