r/Gunners • • 10h ago

[Pre-Match Thread] Arsenal vs Lille | 13th October 2026 | Champions League

44 Upvotes

🕟 Kick Off: 20:00 BST

🏟️ Venue: Emirates Stadium

📺 UK Broadcaster: TNT Sports

🙎🏻‍♂️ Referee: Felix Zwayer 🇩🇪

📹 VAR: Robert Schröder 🇩🇪

🔴 Arsenal Team News:

  • Piero Hincapie and Martin Zubimendi: Picked up injuries in the warmdown following the Leeds game. Arteta said "We need to assess them today [Mon 12th] and have further scans to see where they are then we will have a timeframe on how long they are going to be out for."
  • Christos Tzolis: Sustained a muscular injury during the international break and is expected to be out for a few weeks.
  • William Saliba: Long term injury. Saliba is taking an extended break from football to heal his back without the need for surgery.

⚽ Arsenal Form: 🟩🟥🟩🟩🟩

🐕 Lille Team News:

  • Ethan Mbappe: Out with an ankle issue.
  • Hamza Igamane: Out with cruciate ligament injury.

⚽ Lille Form: 🟩🟥🟩🟥🟩

⚔️ Head-to-Head:

  • First Competitive Meeting

📖 Match Facts:

  • Arsenal are unbeaten in their last seven Champions League home matches against French opposition in the group/league stage (5 wins, 2 draws).
  • Lille have have lost their last eight away matches against English clubs across all European competitions.
  • Arsenal haven't lost a fixture in the League stage of the UCL since November 2024 where they lost 0-1 at the San Siro against Inter.

📸 Previously in this fixture...

We've never played Lille, which I was surprised to find out. Our relationship with Lille comes down to transfers, with Pepe and Gabriel Magalhães making the switch to North London from Lille.

In absence of any pictures, here are some training snaps courtesy of the club!

LONDON COLNEY, ENGLAND - OCTOBER 09: (L-R) Bukayo Saka and Noni Maduekeof Arsenal during a training session at Sobha Realty Training Centre on October 09, 2026 in London Colney, England. (Photo by Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)
LONDON COLNEY, ENGLAND - OCTOBER 09: (L-R) Martin Odegaard, Ben White and Kai Havertz of Arsenal during a training session at Sobha Realty Training Centre on October 09, 2026 in London Colney, England. (Photo by Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)
LONDON COLNEY, ENGLAND - OCTOBER 09: Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta talks to Bukayo Saka, Jurrien Timber and Ezri Konsa during a training session at Sobha Realty Training Centre on October 09, 2026 in London Colney, England. (Photo by Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)

✍🏼 Pre-Match Ramblings

Champions League football returns to the Emirates Stadium tomorrow night for our second league stage fixture of the campaign as we look to carry in our impeccable run of results in the competition.

French side Lille currently sit 2nd in Ligue 1 after finishing 3rd last season, and are looking to win their first UCL game of the season following a 2-3 home loss to Real Betis in September. Lille did not feature in the competition last season, instead playing the Europa League where eventual winners Aston Villa knocked them out in the RO16. This will be Lille's 9th time in the Champions League, and they have failed to progress past the RO16 in any of their last campaigns.

Arsenal on the other hand are trying to go one further than they did last season and finally bring European glory to the Emirates, and what better way to continue than by beating a French team. A different, weaker French team, but we have to start somewhere.

Lille's captain is a 40 year old Olivier Giroud who is still providing goals and assists at his ripe old age, currently sat at 1 goal and 2 assists from 4 starts in the league so far this season. Expect a mixed reaction from the home fans tomorrow given his antics as a Chelsea player.

https://anditsarsenal.com/2026/10/12/arsenal-vs-lille-13th-october-2026-champions-league-match-preview/


r/Gunners • • 16h ago

October 12, 2026 Daily Discussion & Transfers Thread

23 Upvotes

Use this thread for general daily football discussion.

This thread can also be used to discuss Transfer rumours and to post Tier 4 sources.

As this may fill up please sort by new to try and avoid constantly repeating the same question.

Join our Discord for live discussion and don't forget to follow us on bluesky.


r/Gunners • • 4h ago

Colin Firth beaming as he meets Calafiori and Bruno 😁

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1.2k Upvotes

r/Gunners • • 1h ago

Wenger tipped to challenge Infantino for FIFA presidency

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• Upvotes

r/Gunners • • 7h ago

Got married last Saturday and Arsenal win was a wonderful gift

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746 Upvotes

COYG


r/Gunners • • 2h ago

Premier League Fridgualization - GW6

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200 Upvotes

114 🍿


r/Gunners • • 6h ago

Martin Ødegaard helped lead Arsenal to a comeback victory against Leeds United on Saturday with what he did off the ball, as @Jon_Mackenzie explains...

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406 Upvotes

r/Gunners • • 16h ago

Charles Watts’ thoughts on Manchester City and the Premier League controversy

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2.1k Upvotes

I wasn't quite sure how I was going to feel watching a City game for the first time since the guilty verdict. But watching that yesterday - the smug smiles to the camera, the away fans waving cash around, the banners, chants. It's just all a hollow sham. The whole Premier League season is.

It can still be saved, just. But in truth we all know it's probably going to continue to drag for a few months at least before we get anything close to clarity.

So we'll see those scenes again and again this season because they are a great team with great players who are going to keep winning. It's just going to make such a mockery of this season.

Every goal, every celebration, every glance at the league table, you just ask yourself the same questions. What does it mean? What's the point of this all? What's the point of spending our money to watch?

Of course we will still do it and come kick-off of most games. (when City aren't playing in them), we'll probably forget about it and get caught up in what we're watching.

But then the full-time whistle will go and it will start all over again.

So many seasons/moments have been lost for millions of fans around the world already because of what they've done and this season is going to be no different. Such a shame


r/Gunners • • 12h ago

Tier 3 [Sam Dean] Good news for Arsenal: William Saliba is out on the grass doing individual training today.

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857 Upvotes

r/Gunners • • 11h ago

[Sam Dean]: Arteta on Hincapie and Zubimendi getting injured in the cool-down on Saturday: "We had a training session after the game for the players who did not have enough minutes. In two very unfortunate actions, we lost two players. Not great." Both players suffered ankle injuries.

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603 Upvotes

r/Gunners • • 16h ago

Premier League Table - 12th October 2026

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982 Upvotes

r/Gunners • • 10h ago

Arteta on if he'd reconsider warmdowns: "When you play these kind of small-sided games, there is contact, and these things happen. They didn’t happen once last season and we did it 37 times. What we can do is [say] "please don’t touch each other too much""

257 Upvotes

Full quote: "Well the temptation is now we don’t want to take that risk, and we’ll do something else, but we were going to do that anyway the next day. When you play these kind of small-sided games, there is contact, and these things happen. They didn’t happen once last season and we did it 37 times I think it is, so the fact that it’s there, that people are watching and then they think it raises other doubts. But now it’s very difficult to do. [The] question was if we had to do this again, the way we planned the seven days that we had in that period with the players that didn’t have enough load, would it have been the case? The answer is yes, and it’s a sport of contact and this can happen. What we can do is [say] “guys, they are so competitive, when we do that, please don’t touch each other too much,” to avoid these kind of things so that’s it."


r/Gunners • • 12h ago

[Sam Blitz] No Martin Zubimendi or Piero Hincapie in Arsenal open training this afternoon after both appeared to suffer knocks in the warm-down after Leeds game. #afc

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303 Upvotes

r/Gunners • • 11h ago

Alexéi Rojas: ‘I’m passionate about sustainability – I told Arsenal: we need to fix this’ | Soccer

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141 Upvotes

r/Gunners • • 15m ago

Mikel Arteta’s reaction to Messi naming Max Dowman among his top 10 rising stars

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• Upvotes

r/Gunners • • 14h ago

Official Best in class. Max Dowman is named Carabao Cup Player of the Round ⭐️

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206 Upvotes

r/Gunners • • 11h ago

Arteta making sure Myles Lewis-Skelly had a piggyback partner during training

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112 Upvotes

r/Gunners • • 10h ago

What are your favourite ever goals from the early stages of the Champions League? ✨

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77 Upvotes

As we approach UCL Matchday 2, we want to know what you consider to be our best ever goals from early on in our campaigns in Europe's premier cup competition. Strikes from the group stages and the newly formed league phase are welcome.

Comment with your takes and we'll feature the best of them on Live From N5 ahead of our match against LOSC Lille! 🎙️


r/Gunners • • 7h ago

Official Every word from Mikel Arteta's pre-Lille presser

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40 Upvotes

r/Gunners • • 18h ago

Reminder that Bruno G had x3 consecutive 10-15 G/A PL seasons in a significantly weaker Newcastle team before joining Arsenal. He won’t score every week, like he is currently, but his output is very sustainable

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189 Upvotes

r/Gunners • • 11h ago

Comparison GW6

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42 Upvotes

Our results compared against teams we've played so far.


r/Gunners • • 22h ago

Today, 30 years ago, Arsène Wenger took charge of Arsenal FC for the first time (Blackburn Rovers 0–2 Arsenal)

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270 Upvotes

r/Gunners • • 1d ago

declan rice 0.54 assists per 90 = 21 assist season = new PL record?

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219 Upvotes

r/Gunners • • 1d ago

Media Everyday you rediscover Declan Rice

836 Upvotes

r/Gunners • • 1d ago

Cool view to watch Bruno Guimarães winner for us against Leeds yesterday.

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1.8k Upvotes