Atalanta have never met Arsenal in a competitive match before. The Gunners are the fifth English team they have met in a major European competition, after Everton (W2), Man City (D1 L1), Liverpool (W2 L2) and Man Utd (D1 L1).

Arsenal have lost their last three away UEFA Champions League games in Italy, although this is their first trip there since 2013. Those defeats came at the hands of Roma (0-1 in 2009), Milan (0-4 in 2012) and Napoli (0-2 in 2013).

Atalanta’s last four UEFA Champions League matches – all in the 2021-22 group stage – have seen both them and their opponents score two or more goals (D2 V2). In the entire history of the European Cup, no team has ever scored and conceded 2+ goals in five consecutive matches.

Arsenal have won their opening match in each of their last six major European campaigns (five in the UEFA Europa League and last season’s Champions League). The last team to beat the Gunners in their opening match was Dinamo Zagreb in the 2015–16 Champions League.

The 2023–24 UEFA Europa League Final – won 3–0 by his team – was Gian Piero Gasperini’s 50th match as Atalanta manager in a major European competition (excluding qualifiers). Gasperini has won just under half of them (48%), with 24 wins from 50 matches (G14 V12).

Only Atlético Madrid (+6.16) outperformed Arsenal in last season’s UEFA Champions League (+5.49 – 19 goals from an xG of 13.51), while the Gunners also had the third-highest shot percentage in the competition last season (15.7%), behind only Manchester United (16.9%) and Atlético de Madrid (16.8%).

Atalanta’s 23 UEFA Champions League matches have seen an average of 3.6 goals per match (40 for, 43 against). This is the second highest number of goals scored by any team to have played more than 20 times in the competition, after Viktoria Plzen (3.8 per match).

Bukayo Saka has been involved in eight goals in nine UEFA Champions League games for Arsenal in 2023-24 (4 goals, 4 assists). This is the most goals ever scored by an Englishman in his debut season, breaking the record set by Lee Bowyer in 2000-01 for Leeds United (6 goals, 1 assist).

Atalanta’s Ademola Lookman scored five times in his last three UEFA Europa League starts last season, including a hat-trick in the final against Bayer Leverkusen. Lookman has never scored in four career appearances against Arsenal, while his only UEFA Champions League appearance came for RB Leipzig against Zenit in October 2019.

Raheem Sterling could make his UEFA Champions League debut for Arsenal in this match and would become the first player in European Cup history to play for four different English teams, having previously played for Liverpool, Man City and Chelsea. The other four players who play for three teams are David Batty (Leeds, Blackburn, Newcastle), Yossi Benayoun (Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea), William Gallas (Chelsea, Arsenal, Spurs) and Kolo Toure (Arsenal, Man City, Liverpool).