He flopped at Tottenham, but now star who hates Arsenal could ruin Mikel Arteta’s Champions League hopes

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Arsenal’s route to the Champions League final has been mapped out.

The Gunners discovered their potential path to European glory on Friday morning when the draw for the continental competition took place.

PSV await Arsenal in the round of 16, before a possible trip to Madrid in the quarter-final follows, with Real and Atletico set to battle it out for a spot in the last eight.

If Mikel Arteta’s team overcome these two hurdles, they’ll face one of Liverpool, Paris Saint-German, Aston Villa or Club Brugge in the semi-final.

However, they must first beat a supremely talented PSV side, who have an old foe at their disposal.

• READ MORE: Arsenal face unprecedented fixture schedule with two nightmare trips in a matter of days – it’s a disaster for Mikel Arteta

Ivan Perisic will play against Arsenal for PSV

While PSV are blessed with several exuberant young attackers, with the likes of Johan Bakayoko, Ismael Saibari and Ricardo Pepi all thriving under Peter Bosz’ stewardship, they also have a veteran in their ranks guiding these youngsters.

Ivan Perisic completed a switch to the Eredivisie giants last summer after cutting ties with Croatian side Hajduk Split in August.

The 36-year-old winger has been enjoying a relatively fruitful season in the Netherlands, scoring six goals and providing seven assists in all competitions.

He scored PSV’s crucial goal away in Turin against Juventus in the play-off round, as well as netting in the home game, and has been keeping one of Bakayoko or Noa Lang out at times this term.

Spending 18 months at Tottenham between 2022 and 2024, there is a bit of bite between Perisic and Arsenal.

While he made just 50 appearances for the Lillywhites, scoring one goal, he publicly took a dig at the Gunners back in 2022, about something that happened prior to his spell in North London.

Perisic claimed that it was ‘obvious’ that Arsenal would bottle the top four (via the Metro) at the end of the 2021/22 season, with this unnecessary jibe an indicator that there is some animosity between the Croatian and the N5 club.

Arsenal have their sights set on winning the Champions League, and given Perisic’s history, he’ll be desperate to ruin these hopes when given the opportunity in early March.

Ivan Perisic could be a threat for PSV against Arsenal

Bosz has surprisingly tended to favour starting the more experienced Perisic in the Champions League over one of Lang or Bakayoko.

This means that the former Inter Milan man will likely start in at least one of the legs against Arsenal.

At his age, you’d have expected Perisic to have substantially declined, but his underlying numbers suggest he still has plenty to offer at a high level.

While he’s not quite as effective on the dribble as he used to be, the wide forward still manages to produce impressive creative numbers, while he’s taking 1.6 shots per game, which is likely to lead to a healthy goal tally at the end of the season.

Arsenal will need to make sure one of Jurrien Timber, Riccardo Calafiori or Myles Lewis-Skelly is on top form to negate a Perisic, who’ll be out to get his former rivals.