How do Inter and Arsenal matchup Wednesday?

There is no way around it: Arsenal’s match with Inter in the UEFA Champions League Wednesday is massive.

The Gunners come into the Matchday 4 contest seven points back of Liverpool in the Premier League table, sitting in fifth place. In the Champions League table, Arsenal sits in ninth, one spot behind Inter: the top eight teams after eight games get a bye into the Round of 16, while the ninth through 24th placed teams have to go into a playoff to see who moves on in the tournament.

Pressure? Arsenal has been through it over the years.

“With everything we’ve been through here in four or five years, what a great place we are in because we’ve been with problems of all kinds,” Arsenal Manager Mikel Arteta said. “We are in an incredible moment and we are blessed to be where we are. We’re going to play this competition, we’re going to play 70 games, we’re going to have injuries, we’re going to have defeats like many other teams and it shows where we are and then how good we’re going to be to react and be ourselves and tomorrow come here to win again.

“I think they (Inter) have a really clear idea and identity and that for me is the biggest strength of Inter and that’s full credit to the manager. He has some very specific ideas, especially in ball possession, the way he moves the position of certain players to occupy different spaces and this makes it tricky and unpredictable. But to be fair, we face in the Premier League a lot of tactical issues that we have to resolve and hopefully tomorrow we’re going to do that as well.”

So, how do the two teams match up tactically? Here is a look.

Biggest Matchups In Inter Milan vs Arsenal

The biggest UCL game tonight is Serie A’s reigning Champions taking on Arsenal. Both sides have aspirations of going into the latter stages of the tournament, so it’ll be a good test of how they’ll both fare against tougher opposition.

Bastoni & Dimarco vs Saka & Trossard

Inter’s left side duo of Dimarco and Bastoni are one of the best in the world, both defensively and offensively. Bastoni’s ball progression from deep is as good as most team’s midfielders, and Dimarco is one of the deadliest crossers in Europe. Not only that, but both are also quality wide channel defenders.

On the opposite side will be Arsenal’s main man Saka and creative technician Trossard. They’ll be a big test for the Inter duo due to their combination of speed, 1v1 ability, creativity and intelligence.

Dimarco does love to bomb forward and play almost as a winger at times. If Arsenal manages to win the ball back and counterattack quickly, they could exploit gaps in defence left behind with a pass in behind from Trossard to Saka.

Barella vs Merino

One of Inter’s most consistent players has been Nicolò Barella. A world-class, tenacious, box-to-box midfielder who’s just as good off the ball as he is on the ball. Barella is so good at making runs into the box and has an insane engine.

Arsenal’s summer signing will have a busy night ahead of him tracking the runs of Barella and trying to nullify his threat. With star-midfielder Declan Rice out of the matchday squad through injury, it’s thought that Merino will start in his place alongside Thomas Partey.

Merino, like Barella, also crashes the box to get on the end of cutbacks. Merino is a strong duel-winning midfielder and high intensity presser. His aggression to get tight to opposing players will be crucial in stopping Barella, and vice-versa in Barella stopping Merino.

Thuram & Martínez vs Gabriel & Saliba

One of the best striking partnerships against one of the best centre-back partnerships. Thuram and Martínez are such a complimentary duo. Both are physical, technical and have excellent link-up play. Thuram is a big, strong target man who brings down long balls, stretches the defence and lays off the ball. Whereas Martínez is an instinctive finisher with a high shot volume. As soon as the ball drops to him, he’ll take a shot.

Gabriel and Saliba are also a complementary duo. Gabriel is the backline aggressor and leader; an aerially dominant defender with prowess in defending wide channels and 1v1’s. Whereas Saliba is more of an anticipator; the cool, calm and collected defender who reads the game perfectly. They balance each other out so well and are crucial in build-up play for Arsenal.

Ideally, Gabriel would be up against Thuram. His aerial abilities and wide channel defending will be crucial in stopping Thuram’s facilitator tendencies. The Arsenal defenders will need to be at their best to stop them.

De Vrij vs Havertz

One area where Arsenal can hurt Inter Milan is by putting Kai Havertz high as the lone striker up against De Vrij. Recently, Arsenal have played Kai Havertz and Leandro Trossard as an attacking duo, but both have dropped too deep and too wide to create balance in the team.

At their best, Trossard drops deep as the creative player and Havertz stays high to facilitate and link-up others, whilst also running in behind to stretch the defence and push their defensive line further back.

Kai Havertz could cause a lot of problems for De Vrij as the central centre-back of their back three. It’s in big games like these where Havertz comes alive and constantly keeps the defenders on their toes.