Key events<\/p>\n
19 min: De Bruyne spins around Eze\u2019s flailing leg and is brought down. No idea why Eze isn\u2019t booked, but the Arsenal<\/a> player gets away with it. De Bruyne is fuming.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n 18 min: Politano finds some space down the right but his looping cross is easy pickings for Raya. Better from Napoli<\/a>, though; the hosts are working their way into this match after a slow start.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n 16 min: De Bruyne should release Santos on the left but tries a trickier pass for Hojlund down the middle. It\u2019s no good. The ball breaks to Politano, who shoots harmlessly from his position on the right.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n 15 min: Napoli<\/a> spend some time patiently passing around the back. Suddenly Di Lorenzo is released down the right. He rolls infield for De Bruyne, who pearls a shot straight at Raya. It\u2019s too hot to handle. Raya spills, but Santos can\u2019t get to the rebound. White pings it off the Napoli man and it\u2019s a goal kick.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n 13 min: Eze is clipped out on the left and Odegaard sends the free kick diagonally into the Napoli box. Gabriel doesn\u2019t win the header. Napoli clear. Politano acrobatically keeps the ball in play out on the left, but only manages to set Arsenal<\/a> off on the attack again. The ball\u2019s sent into the middle, where Saka bicycle kicks straight into Meret\u2019s arms. Arsenal full of confidence.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n 11 min: Arsenal<\/a> continue to stroke it around nicely, and after a few triangles down the right are completed, Saka releases Rice into the box with a sliderule pass. Rice\u2019s attempt at a cutback is no good, and hacked clear.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n 9 min: One corner leads to another, and from the second, Napoli<\/a> tear clear on the counter. Hojlund bombs up the inside-right channel and feeds Santos on the overlap. Santos enters the box and slices a cross over the bar and out for a goal kick. That was a good opportunity for Napoli.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n 8 min: It\u2019s all the all-reds of Arsenal<\/a> in these early exchanges. Eze has a whack from distance and the ball deflects out for the first corner of the match. Rice to take, with Napoli having left four players on the halfway line, Chelsea-at-the-weekend style.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n 7 min: Some more action for White down the right. He chases what looks like a lost cause and digs out a cross. Easy for Meret, with no Arsenal<\/a> player anywhere near the keeper.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n 6 min: Odegaard and White combine neatly down the right and find Saka in a small pocket of space inside the Napoli<\/a> box. Saka has nanoseconds to shoot, and his effort is easily and effectively blocked. Nice move, though.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n 4 min: De Bruyne finds a little bit of space out on the right, and curls a low cross into the Arsenal<\/a> box. There\u2019s no Napoli presence within, and it\u2019s easy for Raya.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n 2 min: Arsenal<\/a> are wearing red shorts. Full marks for considering those with colour blindness, and acting with compassion. It doesn\u2019t look good, mind. It\u2019s just not Arsenal.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n After a moment to remember the victims of the devastating floods in Nepal, Arsenal<\/a> get the ball rolling. A blistering atmosphere at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona; did anyone expect anything else?<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n The teams are out! Napoli wear sky blue, with a fancy gold crest that celebrates their 100th anniversary. Arsenal<\/a> sport their first-choice red shirts, and would do well to change their underwhelming modern badge back to the Victoria Concordia Crescit version, or perhaps the Art Deco hexagon from the 1930s, but good luck getting that past the copyright lawyers. Anyway, I\u2019ve gone off piste. Massimiliano Allegri and Mikel Arteta are hugging. We\u2019ll be off in a minute.<\/p>\n Arsenal’s Ben White and Napoli’s Amir Rrahmani and teammates head onto the pitch. Photograph: Ciro De Luca\/ReutersBring it in big guy. Photograph: Ciro De Luca\/ReutersShare<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a015.10 EDT<\/p>\n Mikel Arteta speaks to TNT Sports. \u201cWe were lucky [regarding the flight over] \u2026 I am sure it was much worse for many tourists \u2026 [Hincapi\u00e9, Eze, Gy\u00f6keres and Merino] deserve to play \u2026 they train really well \u2026 every time they have been on the pitch as finishers they have made an impact \u2026 they fully deserve to start the game \u2026 I could not wait to start playing in the Champions League<\/a> again \u2026 after the last days we had in Budapest, to lift ourselves up and go again \u2026 start the journey again \u2026 [Napoli] have a lot of experience and quality \u2026 a coach with massive experience in the competition \u2026 we are ready \u2026 to be ourselves and win the game.\u201d<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Pre-match postbag. \u201cWhy have such a stacked squad if you can\u2019t make Saka and Rice the ones rested? The fact that it\u2019s early in the season doesn\u2019t really work because their summer was a bunch of extra work\u201d \u2013 Zach Neeley<\/p>\n \u201cAlthough Kai won\u2019t feature among the starters, your chosen pic does offer plenty of food for thought, prompting one to wonder how much expert consideration has gone into crafting all the various hair zones on his head, or how it is that someone with a bag can have so many loose items on his person?\u201d \u2013 Dr Jordan Pickering<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Fancy a deeper dive into Napoli\u2019s dispiriting defeat to Inter last weekend? Nicky Bandini has all the details.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Arsenal make four changes to their starting XI following the 2-1 victory over Chelsea. Typically, having just posted a large picture of Kai Havertz, he\u2019s one of four players stood down, along with Myles Lewis-Skelly, Christos Tzolis and the increasingly influential Riccardo Calafiori. Piero Hincapi\u00e9, Eberechi Eze, Mikel Merino and Viktor Gy\u00f6keres \u2013 the latter making his first start of the season \u2013 are in.<\/p>\n Napoli have a few faces familiar to Premier League fans in their starting XI. Billy Gilmour, formerly of Chelsea, Norwich and Brighton; Manchester City legend Kevin De Bruyne; and erstwhile Manchester United striker Rasmus H\u00f8jlund. Scott McTominay, also once of Old Trafford, is out until next month, having recently had successful surgery to treat an irregular heartbeat.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a014.07 EDT<\/p>\n The teams<\/p>\n Napoli: Meret, Di Lorenzo, Rrahmani, Marin, Olivera, Gilmour, Lobotka, De Bruyne, Politano, Hojlund, Alisson Santos. Arsenal: Raya, White, Konsa, Gabriel, Hincapie, Merino, Rice, Saka, Odegaard, Eze, Gyokeres. Referee: Glenn Nyberg (Sweden)<\/p>\n Arsenal’s keeper David Raya makes a diving save during the warm up. Photograph: Guglielmo Mangiapane\/ReutersShare<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a015.08 EDT<\/p>\n Worry not, people. While this \u2026<\/p>\n \u2026 meant this happened \u2026<\/p>\n \u2026 Arsenal<\/a> are in the house. As proof, here\u2019s Kai Havertz arriving at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona. Not 100 percent sure the Louis Vuitton bag pairs well with the Adidas clobber. The lanyard definitely clashes.<\/p>\n Kai Havertz of Arsenal, Adidas and Louis Vuitton fame. Photograph: Stuart MacFarlane\/Arsenal FC\/Getty ImagesShare<\/a>Preamble<\/p>\n Arsenal came so close last time round. But now they\u2019ve got that Premier League monkey off their back, perhaps this season will finally be their moment to fill that conspicuous big-eared gap on their roll of honour. Because having slaked their domestic thirst, they\u2019ve spent the first few games of this campaign with supreme confidence, swanning around like they own the place, which at the moment they kind of do. Spirits are at an all-time high \u2026<\/p>\n \u2026 and that\u2019s before taking into consideration that near miss last season. Because while Arsenal\u2019s 2025-26 Champions League<\/a> tilt ended in despair, the bare facts are nevertheless something to take pride in: a 100-percent record in the league phase, unbeaten in regular time over the whole piece with a W11 D4 record, and the best defensive record (just seven goals conceded, nine clean sheets) of everyone. And having gone toe to toe with PSG, the best team in Europe, there\u2019s little left to fear. Apart from perhaps another penalty shootout, that is, but that\u2019s a bridge to cross sometime in the future.<\/p>\n Napoli by contrast have won just two of their last ten games in the Champions League, and failed to get past the league phase last year. They\u2019ve lost their last three Champions League matches against English teams, and three of their four previous fixtures against Arsenal. And while the Gunners have started their domestic campaign thrillingly, Gli Azzurri have begun Serie A miserably, following up a home defeat to Como by frittering away a two-goal lead against Inter and coming away with nothing.<\/p>\n So all signs point to an opening victory for last year\u2019s runners-up. And yet Mikel Arteta won\u2019t be taking anything for granted, partly because that\u2019s just not how he rolls, but mainly because he\u2019s already tasted defeat in Naples as a player, getting himself sent off in the process<\/a>. Oh Mikel! Kick-off at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona is at 8pm BST, 9pm local. It\u2019s on!<\/p>\n
Subs: Contini, Milinkovic-Savic, Favasuli, Badiashile, Neres, Lucca, Vergara, Beukema, Spinazzola.<\/p>\n
Subs: Arrizabalaga, Meslier, Tzolis, Madueke, Havertz, Calafiori, Zubimendi, Guimaraes, Lewis-Skelly, Dowman, Salmon.<\/p>\n