Arteta's Arsenal Ready for Champions League Final Against PSG

Mikel Arteta will have his first-choice right-back on the biggest night of Arsenal’s modern history. Jurrien Timber, sidelined since March with a groin injury, has been declared fit to start Saturday’s Champions League final against Paris St-Germain.

It changes the feel of the whole occasion.

For weeks, right-back looked like the one crack in an otherwise ruthless Arsenal machine. Ben White’s knee ligament injury stripped Arteta of his most trusted option, forcing a reshuffle that never quite felt permanent. Spain centre-back Cristhian Mosquera has filled in. So have midfield anchors Martin Zubimendi and Declan Rice, each doing a job, none of them truly natural in the role.

Now Timber is back, and back at the sharp end.

The Dutchman has been in full training in Budapest, pictured moving freely as Arsenal fine-tune their plans for Luis Enrique’s reigning champions. His availability restores balance to a back line that has thrived on clarity and aggression all season.

The good news did not stop there.

Noni Madueke, who limped off with a hamstring issue in the win over Crystal Palace last weekend, is also available. Another attacking weapon restored, another selection headache Arteta will gladly take on the eve of a final.

Any notion that Arsenal might relax after ending a 22-year wait for a Premier League title was quickly brushed aside by the manager. Arteta was blunt about the mood inside his camp.

“The ambition is bigger, we have one [trophy] and we want the second one,” he said.

This isn’t a group satisfied with finally scaling England. It’s a squad treating that title as a launchpad.

“There has to be a platform to reach bigger destinations and to aim for more,” Arteta added, pointing to the team’s recent record in Europe and their level in this season’s competition.

The message is clear: this is not a one-off surge, but a team that expects to belong on this stage.

He wants his players to feel it too. “I want the players to be so confident that we are going to go and do it.” No hedging, no talk of underdogs. Just a demand for conviction.

Across from them stand the favourites. PSG arrive in Budapest as defending champions, the side that ended Arsenal’s run at the semi-final stage last year. They know how to win this trophy now, and they are chasing history of their own, aiming to become only the second club to retain the title in the Champions League era.

Arteta is under no illusions about the scale of the task. But he framed it in the stark, simple terms elite players understand.

“They are defending the trophy and they are the champions and we are here to take that away from them,” he said.

One team protecting a crown. The other, newly crowned at home, trying to seize Europe in the same season. Timber back on the grass, Madueke ready to run, and a manager openly talking about taking what the champions hold.

The stage in Budapest is set for Arsenal to decide what kind of era they are really building.