Mikel Arteta named an unchanged side from Sunday’s dramatic late win against Leicester with Riccardo Calafiori and Jurrien Timber both passing late fitness tests to feature at full back.
There was further good news with Mikel Merino also making the bench for the first time since his summer move from Real Sociedad after recovering from a fractured shoulder.
It was a strong start from Arsenal who were pressing with intent and their first chance of the game fell to Saka who curled just over after some lovely play between Gabriel Martinelli and Calafiori down the left hand side.
PSG did settle though and were getting Vitinha on the ball who managed to slow things down, although the Gunners worked another nice opportunity when Saka played Havertz through who ran beyond him on the overlap although nobody could meet his low cross in the box.
Arsenal did eventually break the deadlock after 20 minutes and it was created by Leandro Trossard who did well to evade Desire Doue before delivering a beautiful cross for Havertz, who rose bravely ahead of Gianluigi Donnarumma to head into the corner. 1-0.
The two are continuing to develop a nice relationship and their positional fluidity between midfield and attack makes their movement so difficult to track.
It took half an hour for Paris to fashion their first real opportunity when Nuno Mendes brushed the post with a fiercely struck effort, before Hakimi galloped beyond Calafiori on the counter attack and called David Raya into action from a narrow angle.
Arteta’s men doubled their lead shortly after when Saka delivered a teasing cross towards six red shirts darting towards the near post, leaving Donnarumma confused and unsighted as the ball trickled past him into the net. 2-0.
It was another fun set piece routine from Arsenal who looked dangerous from those situations throughout the first half and despite the poor defending from Paris, should be praised for the creativity and variety they seem to offer almost game-by-game.
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