Kvaratskhelia’s 10 knockout goal involvements explain why Arsenal have to fear him. They do not fully explain why PSG can play the way they do. His defending is part of the mechanism that lets Nuno Mendes and Achraf Hakimi attack like extra forwards.

When Khvicha Kvaratskhelia arrived in Paris, Luis Enrique stated PSG were getting a winger with one-v-one quality, someone who could play inside or as a number nine, and someone who gave them another way to overlap, rotate and adjust. Then came the condition. Kvaratskhelia had “a great capacity for defending,” and PSG needed all 11 players to defend.

Luis Enrique’s pre-match view of Mikel Arteta’s side was built around their work without the ball. He called Arsenal elite in and out of possession, saying they are “the best team in the world” off it, and framed the final as two teams trying to reach similar ideas through different methods.

Luis Enrique wants Hakimi and Mendes high. Arsenal want to press PSG into mistakes, attack the space behind Hakimi, and make the holders defend their own rotations before the ball ever reaches Kvaratskhelia, Ousmane Dembélé or Désiré Doué.

So Arsenal have to account for Kvaratskhelia without the ball as much as they do when he has it. His attacking output has come with one of the heaviest defensive workloads among Champions League wingers. According to Opta, he is one of only two wingers to make 800-plus high-intensity pressures in the competition since the start of last season’s knockout rounds.

That central to PSG’s width. Mendes and Hakimi can leave the back line because the players ahead of them are still prepared to defend the space the rotation has opened.

Arsenal will test the space PSG borrow

PSG have scored 44 goals in this Champions League campaign, while Arsenal have conceded six in 14 matches and have not allowed an open-play goal in the knockout rounds.

Arteta’s language before the final pointed in the same direction. Arsenal, he said, had to play with “clarity,” “courage” and “a relentless desire to win.”

Against PSG, clarity means knowing when to jump, when to hold the back line, and when to leave Hakimi or Mendes open so the next pass can be trapped. Courage means pressing anyway.

Arsenal’s attacking plan can start without the ball. Opta’s piece on how Arsenal can beat PSG points to PSG’s build-up errors: they have made the joint-most errors leading to an opposition shot in this season’s Champions League, with 26, and the joint-most errors leading to a goal, with six. They have also lost possession within 40 metres of their own goal 141 times, and only two teams have conceded more goals after high turnovers.

Against Manchester City last month, Arsenal made 474 pressures, their highest Premier League total of the season, and Kai Havertz’s pressure forced the only goal.

Hakimi is the obvious stress point. Every opponent sees the same picture: PSG’s right-back is one of the best attacking full-backs in Europe, and he is trusted to arrive high, inside and at the far post.

According to Opta, only PSV and Chelsea have allowed opponents to create a higher share of their Champions League chances down their right side than PSG. Spurs, Chelsea and Bayern all found goals or high-value attacks by using that channel.

Kvaratskhelia starts from the left, so he is not simply covering Hakimi’s space. When he presses with the front line, tucks in to balance the midfield, protects Mendes’ side or carries PSG forward after a regain, Hakimi’s advance becomes part of a team movement rather than one full-back taking a private risk.

Mendes needs the winger to do the next job

Before the final, Luis Enrique said the difference between PSG and Arsenal was not two opposing styles but “similar approaches but with different tactics.”

PSG’s full-back rotations are not decoration. They are a route to the same goal: pressure the opponent, stretch the pitch, and then defend the next space quickly enough to keep attacking.

If Kvaratskhelia holds the width, Mendes can step into a freer central lane or help form the back line. If Kvaratskhelia moves inside, Mendes can fill the touchline. If Vitinha drops into the first line, Mendes can push higher. The movement looks loose only because the responsibilities underneath it are clear.

The defender behind the winger does not need a winger who always stays wide. He needs one who can make the right next action.

Kvaratskhelia can start outside, receive inside, press forward, recover backward and still be ready to attack again. A winger who can take up several attacking positions but only helps with the ball leaves his full-back paying the bill.

Last year’s final against Inter showed the version PSG want on both sides. Hakimi joined attacks on the right, Mendes supported Kvaratskhelia on the left, Dembélé moved away from fixed centre-forward positions, and PSG’s midfield adjusted around those wide rotations. Hakimi’s late run into the penalty area produced the opening goal.

Arsenal will not see PSG’s full-backs as ordinary full-backs. They are pressers and late runners. PSG’s front three can press a back line, a midfielder can jump out to a wing-back, and Hakimi can narrow or step into midfield when the press demands it. But those movements only hold if the players around the ball can cover the next pass. Kvaratskhelia’s pressure and tracking are part of that cover.

The attacking output makes the running worth it

PSG would not give this role to a winger who only defends. Kvaratskhelia carries too much of the attack for that. He has tied Harry Kane and Kylian Mbappé for the most goal involvements in this Champions League season, with 16. His 10 knockout goal involvements lead the tournament, and he became the first player to score or assist in seven consecutive knockout appearances in a single Champions League campaign.

The Bayern sequence captured the threat. Kvaratskhelia received in his own half with his back to goal, gave Fabián Ruiz a one-touch layoff, spun away from Dayot Upamecano, carried more than 60 metres in nine seconds, and cut the ball back for Dembélé. Five touches were enough for PSG to turn a recovery phase into the opening goal before Bayern could reset.

Arsenal have to respect that if they press high. PSG’s first pass out of pressure does not need to find Kvaratskhelia near the penalty area. It can find him facing his own goal, with a defender tight and space behind the press.

Arsenal are built to survive long stretches without the ball. Gabriel Magalhães and William Saliba protect Raya, who has nine Champions League clean sheets this season and can become the first goalkeeper to reach 10 in a single campaign. Arsenal have also spent only 43 minutes behind across the competition.

That means PSG need attacks that do more than move Arsenal from side to side.

Kvaratskhelia’s carries and release runs force defenders to turn. Dembélé’s freedom between lines pulls centre-backs and midfielders into uncomfortable choices. Hakimi and Mendes stretch the back line from positions Arsenal’s wingers and full-backs have to track.

Vitinha gives the whole structure rhythm; he has completed 1,448 successful passes, a Champions League single-season record, while ranking near the top among midfielders for line-breaking passes, build-up involvements, secondary chances created and progressive carries.

Rotation gives PSG more late runs to spend

Kvaratskhelia’s work rate is easier to trust because Luis Enrique has protected minutes all season. Opta’s fatigue analysis before the final notes that Saturday will be Arsenal’s 63rd match and PSG’s 56th of 2025-26; including PSG’s seven Club World Cup games, both arrive having played 62 since last June. The difference is how those minutes have been spread since August.

PSG’s main players have been kept fresh for Europe. Dembélé started 11 Ligue 1 matches; Neves, Mendes and Fabián Ruiz started 13 each; Hakimi and Doué started 16; Kvaratskhelia started 18. None of them played even half the available Ligue 1 minutes. Mendes and Marquinhos have actually played more Champions League minutes than Ligue 1 minutes despite the domestic season containing 18 more matches.

Arsenal’s core has carried more of the load. Raya, Declan Rice, Martín Zubimendi, Gabriel and Saliba all started at least 30 Premier League matches, and all five have played more than 4,000 minutes in all competitions. Across the two squads, nine of the 12 players with at least 3,000 competitive minutes this season are Arsenal players.

That does not mean PSG are guaranteed to overrun Arsenal late. Finals rarely obey the clean physical story written before kick-off.

Luis Enrique can ask Kvaratskhelia, Mendes and Hakimi to repeat long actions without treating every sprint as a one-off gamble.

The scouting question is what happens after the rotation

Kvaratskhelia’s PSG role should affect how versatile wingers are judged. A player who can play left wing, inside forward and false nine still has to answer the defensive question those positions create. When he moves inside, does the full-back get cover? When the full-back goes, does the winger recover the flank or press the pass that would expose it? When the press wins the ball, can he turn the defensive action into an attack quickly enough to punish the opponent for stepping forward?

Role flexibility can be oversold. The same player can look tactically mature when receiving between lines and become a liability when the ball is lost behind an advanced full-back.

Kvaratskhelia says he has to “defend like defenders”. PSG’s full-backs benefit because he accepts the work that usually sits outside a winger’s highlight reel.

The front line can press Arsenal’s build-up knowing the next action has to be defended as a team.