Arsenal, PSG show why they are the favorites: Making sense of Champions League MD3

What happens erstwhile teams find retired that successful the new-look UEFA Champions League, draws don't assistance you and losses don't needfully hurt? They spell for it. Maybe they people a batch of goals successful the process, possibly they springiness up a lot. Either way, we win.

In 18 matches this week, we got 71 goals (3.9 per match), including 43 connected Tuesday alone. We got 3 4-0 matches, 2 5-1s, a 6-1, a 7-2, a 6-2 and a 4-2, positive a brace of 3-1s and a 3-0. And the 3 0-0 matches we got were wholly accidental -- they averaged 3.1 combined xG arsenic well.

Action whitethorn beryllium down successful the Premier League, but Champions League Matchday 3 brought the thunder.

Of course, it besides brought blowouts. Aside from the accidental 0-0s, lone 2 different matches were decided by 1 goal. It appears that the sport's heavyweights retrieve the mode Manchester City (22nd successful past year's League Phase) and PSG (15th) struggled successful the early-going past season, and they cognize that there's nary clip similar the contiguous to deed the gas. Of the apical 10 teams successful the world, per the current Opta rankings, 5 person taken a cleanable 9 points from their archetypal 3 matches, and the others person each taken astatine slightest six.

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Granted, plentifulness of celebrated clubs are inactive struggling -- Napoli and Atletico Madrid person 3 points each, Juventus and Bayer Leverkusen person 2 and Benfica and Ajax person zero -- but the champion of the champion are leaving small uncertainty aboriginal on. As we attack the midway constituent of the League Phase, let's look astatine the champion teams, players and matches (well, match) of Matchday 3 and instrumentality banal of wherever everyone stands.

TEAMS OF THE WEEK

Arsenal, Paris Saint-Germain

Arsenal 4, Atletico Madrid 0; Bayer Leverkusen 2, PSG 7

The 2 champion teams successful Europe astatine the infinitesimal some precise overmuch looked the part, winning by a combined 11-2 against a brace of opponents that person won Big Five league titles successful the 2020s.

Arsenal utilized a 15-minute burst to pummel Atletico. They were the superior squad done 55 scoreless minutes, though Atleti's Julián Álvarez deed the station with a glorious agelong changeable successful the 49th minute. If that goes in, and Atleti could person decently parked the bus, possibly things play retired differently. Or possibly Arsenal was inevitable either way.

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