Ousmane Dembele is back in the PSG squad (Image: Mustafa Yalcin/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Arsenal are over and out before next week’s Champions League semi-final first-leg against Paris Saint-Germain.

They finished two days before their opponents, drawing to Crystal Palace on Wednesday night.

For Arsenal is it the visit of PSG on Tuesday. Palace have the FA Cup semi-final meeting with Aston Villa to look forward to. They play on Saturday evening.

Mikel Arteta admitted that he would be approaching the Palace game like he would any other, not going out of his way to rest and rotate too much.

 In his view, other than the sheer lack of options due to injuries across his squad, the best plan of attack was to maintain sharpness and intensity by playing.

His starting XI showed that with all of David Raya, Jurrien Timber, William Saliba, Jakub Kiwior, Declan Rice, and Gabriel Martinelli getting 90 minutes. Myles Lewis-Skelly started, as did Martin Odegaard. Even Bukayo Saka came off the bench.

Arteta chose against calling on more of the youth hopefuls named as substitutes in favour of consistency and regularity. Palace did likewise.

The same could not be said for PSG at the weekend. They had the added confusion of an extra match between overcoming Villa themselves in the quarter-finals and then travelling to north London.

On Saturday they beat Le Havre at home but Luis Enrique still had two more games to navigate.

On Tuesday they travelled to Nantes, with Friday being their third game in seven days as they welcome Nice to Paris.

It means both Arsenal and PSG will have the full weekend to get themselves up to speed.

On paper this should give Arsenal a slight advantage.

However, Enrique has been much more adventurous with his selections.

Against Le Havre he rested eight likely starters for the Champions League clash. Only Bradley Barcola, Lucas Beraldo, and Achraf Hakimi made it.

Even Beraldo is second choice behind Willian Pacho, who was ill. Ousmane Dembele was left out entirely.

Enrique experimented with a chance of system, turning to a back three, and offered starts to two teenagers as well.

His side got the job done as they seek to crown a Ligue 1 winning season with an unbeaten record.

Ramping things up against a better opponent on Tuesday, Enrique went back to a much stronger XI. Gianluigi Donnarumma returned in goal, as did Nuno Mendes and Marquinhos to the backline.

Hakimi, this time, did not make the matchday squad as he was given the night off.

Vitinha and Fabian Ruiz came into midfield with Warren Zaire-Emery completing the trio. Joao Neves filled in at right-back.

Ruiz was the only PSG player at risk of missing the semi-final first leg due to suspension after being one yellow card away from a ban in the Villa second leg.

Mikel Arteta and Thomas Partey following Arsenal’s win over Ipswich Town (Image: Photo by Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)

In attack and Enrique brought back Dembele, while Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Kang Lee-In operated either side of him.

All three were changed during the 1-1 draw with Desire Doue and Goncalo Ramos getting an outing. Barcola also came on, as did Pacho on his own return.

The squad released to play Nice is full strength as well.

It indicates that PSG are currently running without any injury worries and there are, as mentioned, no suspension bothers either.

As for Arsenal, Arteta has left supporters concerned over the fitness of Mikel Merino. He played no part in the Palace match. Ben White was also nowhere to be seen.

“Yeah, we’ll have to wait and see, they weren’t able to be in the squad today,” Arteta said afterwards.

This doesn’t help to form a picture of just what Arsenal may or may not be able to field next week.

“Without understanding who is available at the moment, [it’s] very difficult,” Arteta admitted. He will also be without Jorginho.

The Italian suffered a ‘scary’ rib injury against Brentford. Riccardo Calafiori is not yet in a position to come back either.

The longer term absences (Gabriel Magalhaes, Gabriel Jesus, and Takehiro Tomiyasu) will all be out for the season.

Kai Havertz is a slight exception with Arteta hinting there is a chance he comes back before the end.

PSG, then, may well play again before Arsenal, and have had a tougher load this week, but they are working with a fully fit squad. It is Arteta’s task to make this inconsequential.

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