Slavia Prague stand to make unwanted UEFA Champions League (UCL) history if they fail to beat an Arsenal side who travel on the back of a huge domestic win at the weekend.
Match News and Current Form
It’s been a good week for Slavia Prague, who’ve responded to a four-game winless run (D3, L1) by scoring nine unanswered goals across a pair of domestic victories. The Red and Whites are sitting seven points clear at the top of the Czech league and have lost just twice in all competitions this season (W11, D5), though both defeats came in the UCL. Since winning their first game in this competition, Slavia are winless in 22 matches in the UCL proper (D8, L14), just one short of the all-time record, and they appear nailed on to be written into the history books here as they’ve failed to win any of their last 18 fixtures across all European competitions (D6, L12).
Arsenal provided a perfect response to their embarrassing EFL Cup defeat to fourth-tier Fleetwood, as they battled to a 1-0 win away at Liverpool which returned them to the Premier League summit. It was just the Gunners’ second victory in their last five away games in all competitions (D1, L2), with that draw coming on matchday three of the UCL against Bayern Munich (2-2), a result which ended a 14-match winning streak in the league phase. Last season’s table toppers look to bounce back here and carry with them a nine-game unbeaten run on their UCL travels (W6, D3), while the only defeat they’ve suffered in their last 18 outings in this competition at any venue came in last term’s final (W13, D4).
Head-to-Head History
Slavia are winless in all five prior H2Hs (D2, L3), failing to even score in the three meetings they hosted (D1, L2), the most recent of which was a 3-0 defeat in last season’s league phase. Arsenal are unbeaten against Czech teams (W9, D2) and have never conceded an away goal against such opponents (W5, D1).
Hot Stats and Streaks
Slavia conceded 2+ goals in eight of their last nine UCL home fixtures.
Slavia failed to score in six of their last ten UCL games.
Five of Arsenal’s six UCL goals this term came after half-time.
Arsenal have scored 2+ goals in only one of their last five away matches.
Key Players to Watch and Missing Players
Mubarak Suleiman is a man in form for Slavia with five goal involvements in their last two games (G4, A1), and he’s netted the opener in all three of his scoring appearances this term. Standing in his way will be David Raya, who boasts the best clean sheet ratio (54%) of any goalkeeper with 25+ starts in UCL history.
Samuel Isife and Lukáš Provod are injury concerns for Slavia, while Arsenal are without Bukayo Saka.
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Betting Analysis
Arsenal to win without conceding looks the obvious choice here given their stellar H2H record.
Author: Ryan Fisher