6 min: Trossard swings it in, and Arsenal should be leading. The visitors are unable to clear their lines, and the ball drops to Calafiori, eight yards out. He’s got enough time to fix himself, but leans back and shovels over the bar. What a chance. You’d expect better from someone who scored such a pearler at Manchester City last month.

5 min: Trossard plays a cute reverse pass down the inside-right channel to release Havertz into the box. A corner is earned. Trossard, filling in for the absent Saka, swings it into the mixer. Kryskiv is forced to eyebrow over his own bar. Trossard to try again.

4 min: A few touches for Saliba, who might as well put in 110 percent tonight. He’ll not be available at the weekend against Liverpool, with Arsenal today confirming they’ll not appeal his red card against Bournemouth. Plenty of time to put the old feet up then.

2 min: Rice swings the corner under the bar. Riznyk slaps it away. Trossard recycles on the other flank with some neat skill, but his cross is too deep for his team-mates in the six-yard box. Still, a fast start by the hosts.

1 min: Martinelli tears down the left and wins the first corner of the game on 37 seconds. A determined run. Rice wanders over to take in front of 5,000 Ukrainian fans.

Shakhtar get the ball rolling. A fine atmosphere at the Emirates.

The teams are out. Arsenal in their red and white finery, Shakhtar sporting second-choice black with a spatter of orange. Once the Uefa marketing bods have done their usual number on George Frideric Handel, we’ll all be good to go. “History does indeed favour Arsenal if you take a long enough look backwards,” agrees Charles Antaki, “but if very recent history is anything to go by, then unless Arteta has managed to choke off the supply of stupid pills that have been doing the rounds of the players, then we will see a parade of hilariously bad back passes, suicidal tackles, and an outbreak of ball-kicking-away. Just Say No.”

The two early games have finished. Milan have beaten Club Brugge 3-1, while Monaco have thumped 1991 champions Red Star Belgrade 5-1. All of which leaves the Big Table looking like this as Arsenal, Shakhtar and everyone else go into the 8pm kick-offs. (Please ignore the technical glitch at the bottom, which keeps drawing in Celtic’s group-stage humiliation from last season, as though getting thumped 7-1 by Borussia Dortmund the other month wasn’t bad enough. Rumours that our development team work with Penny Arcade blasting from the office stereo on loop are well wide of the mark.)

Andriy Shevchenko, Dynamo Kyiv and Milan legend and now president of the Ukrainian Football Association, speaks to Amazon Prime. “Shakhtar represent Ukraine here … we have to thank the soldiers on the front line who allow us to play football … best of luck to Shakhtar who deserve to be in this competition … we have to develop football in Ukraine, even in these circumstances … I know the situation could change every day … but I defend my country and the rights of my country … grassroots … women’s football … we are going to carry on and fight … Champions League is the greatest competition … Georgiy Sudakov has very good skills … an important player … big potential to become even better … he can cover different positions on the pitch … support Ukraine … the war is not finished … do what you can … during this time you know who your friends are and we want to thank the British people.”

Oleksandr Zinchenko is only a sub for Arsenal tonight. Nevertheless, this obviously remains a big night for the Ukrainian, who was unable to break through as a youth with Shakhtar, but hasn’t done too badly for himself at Manchester City and Arsenal since. He discusses his career, and the difficulty of following the war back home from overseas, with Donald McRae.

Mikel Arteta speaks to Amazon Prime. “No eye [on the upcoming match against Liverpool] … we had a great match against PSG and we’re going to have another one … we are very excited about it … Saka was not able to do a session in the way we wanted … at the moment I am not very hopeful [that he will be available for the Liverpool game] … I give my players perspective … we have not lost a game in six months … now we have, let’s have a reaction … we have options … in midfield and up front we have some good options … we have a lot of sympathy for Shakhtar … the difficult situation they have … we welcome them in the best possible manner … when it comes to the game we must do our best.”

Shakhtar were forced to move from their home town of Donetsk in 2014 due to the conflict between Ukraine and Russia, a fact coach Marino Pušić references while talking to Amazon Prime: “It’s tough … facing all these challenges make you stronger … we are not complaining … we are fighters … we came here to play … so let’s play football … we had a short period to prepare ourselves … eight-and-a-half hours in the bus, then we travelled to here … every game is like an away game … we try to create a home feeling in Lviv but it’s far from a home feeling … we have to create it for ourselves … it has to come out of us … we want to show up and compete … it does not matter whether we play Arsenal or Barcelona … we have a pretty young squad … improving every day … that’s the pleasure of my job … our hotel was destroyed completely … it could have been us.”

Pušić is also asked about his time working with new Liverpool boss Arne Slot while at AZ Alkmaar. “We enjoyed a lot of success … he is an amazing manager … I am very happy for him and I have no doubts about it … he is ready for everything … his tactical ability and individual approaches are excellent.”

This fixture, as mentioned in the preamble, has been played on two previous occasions. Here’s what happened in 2010 …

… and this is how things panned out in those sepia-toned days when MBMs were still very much in their infancy and as rare as a Martin Keown double, so it’s a straight-up match report you’re getting for this one.

Gabriel Martinelli and Gabriel Jesus return for Arsenal in the wake of their 2-0 defeat at Bournemouth. Mikel Merino and Raheem Sterling drop to the bench. Martin Ødegaard, Bukayo Saka and Jurriën Timber remain on the injured list. Should Kai Havertz score tonight, he’ll become the first player ever to score in eight consecutive games at the Emirates.

The teams

Preamble