Arteta's Arsenal Open Champions League Against a Dortmund Side Built to Hurt Them

Arsenal are Premier League champions for the first time in 22 years, and yet here they are opening their Champions League campaign without their best centre-back and with three defenders in various degrees of broken. That's football, and that's why Tuesday nights under the Emirates floodlights still feel like anything could happen.

The Saliba situation is the elephant in the room. The French international fractured his back during the World Cup and, according to reports, November is being pencilled in as a return date — with no guarantees. That is a catastrophic absence for a side whose entire defensive identity is built around him. Ezri Konsa, signed from Aston Villa, made his full debut against Chelsea last weekend and did well enough, but asking him to step straight into Champions League football against Serhou Guirassy — a striker with a 8.34 match rating in the Bundesliga this season and already two goals to his name — is a different proposition entirely. Jurrien Timber (ankle, SAM rating 9.1/10) is edging closer to fitness but was left out of the Chelsea squad, so don't expect him Tuesday. Cristhian Mosquera pulled his hamstring against Villa and missed the Chelsea game too. Mikel Arteta, to put it mildly, is having to get creative at the back.

Here's the thing though — Dortmund arrive in north London with their own defensive crisis. Nico Schlotterbeck serves a red-card suspension, which is a massive blow given he carries an 8.8/10 SAM rating and had been averaging 6.9 fantasy football points per game. Ramy Bensebaïni is also banned. Emre Can remains out with a serious knee injury, Filippo Mane picked up a thigh problem against Hoffenheim last Friday, and Jorge Lerma is out with muscle trouble too. Niko Kovač has assembled a 3-4-3 system in the Bundesliga that's been working — two wins from two including a 2-0 opening day win over Hamburg — but he'll need to reshape his back three significantly for this one. Waldemar Anton (SAM 9.0/10) will be asked to anchor things almost single-handedly.

For fantasy football managers, the attacking end is where the real value lies in this fixture. Martin Ødegaard already has a goal and two key passes from his one Champions League appearance, rating 8.3 on the API-Football scale. Kai Havertz chipped in with a goal too. Christos Tzolis — signed from Club Brugge — has been electric in his early showings, racking up two assists and three key passes in his only Champions League outing, rated 8.2. Victor Gyökeres (SAM 8.7/10) leads the Arsenal attack and, with Dortmund's defence so disrupted, the Swedish striker will fancy his chances. On the other side, Fábio Silva scored in Dortmund's first Champions League match and Daniel Svensson (SAM 8.4/10, 5.5 pts/game) pulled an assist. Julian Brandt's departure as a free agent to Ajax has left a creative hole in Kovač's midfield, and that's a real concern for the visitors.

There's a subplot worth noting too: Ethan Nwaneri went the other way this summer, loaned from Arsenal to Dortmund, and already made his BVB debut as a substitute against Hoffenheim. He won't face his parent club on Tuesday — that would be contractually blocked — but his presence at Signal Iduna Park tells you something about both clubs' planning. Meanwhile, Arsenal shed Gabriel Martinelli to Al Hilal for $67.5 million and Gabriel Jesus to Barcelona, reshaping their attack considerably. Gyökeres is now the undisputed number one, and the early signs — despite modest fantasy football output so far — suggest he's settling in.

Arsenal at the Emirates in Champions League football, three Premier League wins from three, the crowd fully behind them. Even with the defensive injury pile-up, this one goes to the Gunners. 2-1, Arteta's side edge a scrappy, end-to-end opener.