Arsenal’s Chance at History, Can PSG Repeat, and Crystal Palace Win in Europe: Big Weekend Preview 05/29/26

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2:22Arsenal head to the Champions League final, fresh off their long dream Premier League triumph. And now there's just 90 minutes and a truly incandescent defending champion PSG between them and footballing immortality. Incredible days to be a New York Knicks supporting Arsenal fan. Touch upon Crystal Palace's ongoing joy. European champions, good guys win. This is Weekend Preview Champions League final edition. But first, we welcome back the Adam Wharton of words. It's Mr. Rory Smith. How are you doing, Rog? Rory, I'm OK.

2:54Roger Bennett:But you're off to Budapest, baby, to eat all the goulash. All of the goulash, absolutely. Yeah, I fly in a few hours to Budapest, along with what sounds like half of London. Half of London and the entire planet suddenly feels like it's rising up as one in Arsenal, Jersey. I want to give huge thanks to Bank of America, Official Bank of US Soccer and the FIFA World Cup 2026 for supporting the Men in Blazers media network. Discover what's possible in sports and in life. What would you like the power to do? So let's dive into it. We are just 24 hours from the Champions League final. Paris Saint-Germain against Arsenal tomorrow, 12pm Eastern Time on CBS proper.

3:31Let's start with our freshly crowned Premier League victors. Those bottled it narratives gone. Runners up mockery. Bridesmaids mockery. The season spent in Manchester City and Liverpool shadows. All of it's been silenced. Arsenal, we're seeing a club transform roar. They are now a banter-free zone. And before we break down the final, I want to acknowledge, because it's been, unless you are hardened of heart and a truly a stiff-necked person, it has been heartwarming to see the joy this title has brought to Arsenal fans, not just in North London, globally. Scenes from Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, beautiful.

4:06Across New York City, rhapsodic. The wait's been long, the torment, the failure so profound, the desire so pent up. It is New York Knicks-esque. And I found it really the collective effervescence, I think my friend Renee Brown calls it, to witness it across the planet. We have to acknowledge, putting aside footballing rivalry, it has been seismic to witness.

4:29Roger Bennett:Yeah, it's been incredible, just the scale of it, Rog, I think. Seeing how much it's meant, as you say, in Nairobi and in Acre and all points in between. I think it's been a really kind of powerful illustration of so much of what we talk about around the Premier League in general, maybe Arsenal and a couple of others in particular, which is these are global phenomena. Like these are institutions that are the world's local teams. And as much, I've been really moved actually by, by seeing what's happened in London, because you normally associate London with being one of those cities that's too big for any one thing to kind of dominate its consciousness.

5:05Roger Bennett:That there's always loads going on in London. You know, there'll be, you might have a massive concert at one venue, like a, you know, a movie premiere somewhere else, a football match here. Like you can go to London most days and not realise that a football match is happening, even a major one. But the last week or so just seems to have been endless celebration in North London in particular, but not just North London. I was in the middle of London last week and you see people in Arsenal jerseys all over the place. And that's not that normal. Like it feels very kind of celebratory. And that's a reminder that as much as Arsenal is an international brand, it remains rooted in its place.

5:40Roger Bennett:And that's quite important. But to see how much it means in all four corners of the globe is extraordinary. Yeah, a friend of mine just lost his father in North London. And to hear about the hugs going down at the funeral, you know, just the sadness living alongside the happiness. But to see that crackling across the planet, it is. We talk about football bringing a sense of unity, a sense of joy, a sense of profound connectivity, what the world needs right now to witness it. You know, even though I am dead inside, I found it so incredibly moving. It is the good stuff. I long for the day that Everton maybe win the Conference League.

6:16And there'll be like celebrations across part Liverpool and maybe a bit of North Wales. And it will be magnificent. To the game itself, there's little doubt this is the clash between the two best teams in Europe. Two title holders, one the defending European champion. But let's start with Arsenal. And we've just talked about how the boil has been lanced. Premier League trophy brought back. But this Champions League is the one piece of silverware Arsenal have never won. They came close 20 years ago this month, 2006, a night in Paris against Barcelona. Saul Campbell gave 10 minutes on the lead. But a late Barcelona surge transformed hope into a 2-1 agony, reinforced by Thierry Henry, the camping subsequently to Barcelona in the wake.

6:57Two decades on, they arrive again. Domestic burden finally lifted. Celebrations long and immense. We followed every bottle raised, every nightclub visit, every wobbly 5am return to commune with fans outside the Emirates. Arsenal, a professional outfit, they'll have locked in again. But does this feel like a free hit for them, Roar? Or is there a separate weight of expectation because they remain the biggest club in Europe, never to have been European champions?

7:22Roger Bennett:It feels a little bit like a free hit, Rog, I think. In the sense that they know now that this season has been a success. Whatever happens, there's a parade on Monday. And that that parade will be attended by hundreds of thousands, maybe a million people. that the mood will be uplifting and uproarious and everyone will be together delighted by what Arsenal have done. And that, I think, makes a difference. I think that has a weight. That will be something that drives them on in Budapest. It means the pressure is not quite as intense. But that said, the players will be aware that the club have never won the Champions League, that it is this kind of massive absence on their kind of professional resume.

8:00Roger Bennett:And they will also know that it's their chance to win the most important trophy in club football. So it's not like they will be playing without pressure, but I think that pressure will feel different having won the Premier League already. Arsenal's run into the final in Budapest is a beautiful thing in itself. I'm old enough to remember not long ago, when Arsenal merely qualifying for the Champions League felt like the goal in and of itself. They were learning how to build the muscle for a title race domestically. And now they arrive in a Champions League final as Premier League title holders and beaten this entire competition, the best defensive record of any team in it, just six goals conceded the entire pathway.

8:41You know, Vincent Kompany, before Bayern Munich faced this, PSG team declared you cannot play defensively against the champions. You saw them as so stacked that they will press you into this structure. Bayern were subsequently found out over and over again in that rollicking blur of a first leg Bayern battering. Arsenal now are a wall of meat. We've marveled at that all season. They're about repel and control. They are willing to drag opponents into a world of hurt and believe they can suffer more than you can there. But the narrative, Roar, was eerily similar last year. Simon Inzaghi's Inter Milan, we talked about how they would be a stern defensive test, and we know how that ended up.

9:21It was just a 5-0 cakewalk. Roar, this is different, right? Isn't it, Roar? I mean, let me ask you this way. What is the way Arsenal can win this?

9:30Roger Bennett:It's definitely different to Inter, and that's meant there's no disrespect. I think, to be honest, Inter froze a little bit in the final. I don't think that was a fair kind of reflection of what Inter Milan were last season. It looked an awful lot like a total mismatch. It probably shouldn't have done Inter look really tired. They looked old all of a sudden. I think they had excelled themselves by getting there. Arsenal are a totally different proposition. They're much younger, for a start. They are much better organised, I think. They are not in the midst of losing all three major trophies, which Inter were.

10:01Roger Bennett:They've just won a major one, so their confidence will be really high. And as much as I think companies write that asking PSG onto you is asking for trouble to an extent, Arsenal are really good defensively. They're almost impossible to break down, as you say, unbeaten in this competition. By common consensus and statistical fact, the best defence in Europe. There is an element of unstoppable force against the immovable object in this final, as we've said before, Rog. and ultimately sometimes the immovable object wins. Defenses win championships, defenses can win games. I don't think Arsenal will go into it aiming to play for a 0-0 draw and penalties.

10:33Roger Bennett:They will have much more ambition than that but they will see their defence as kind of their key to victory and I think you can absolutely build the case that PSG won't have faced a team as well organised as this, as well disciplined as this, to be honest, as happy to defend as this. They won't have faced a team of this quality. You have two reigning champions, you have unquestionably the two best teams in Europe at the moment. They're very different in style, but I'm not sure you could say that one style is more effective than the other. Crit one. Does Arteta go Jokeres five goals in 11 Champions League games?

11:07So rampant in our memories against Atletico in the second leg of the semi-final. Or does he say, you know what, Kai Havertz, a presser, more technically astute against a dominant William Paccio and Marquinhos. Who's he going to go with?

11:20Roger Bennett:My instinct would be, Rog, that you probably need Jokeres because you need someone who can ask physical questions of PSG's defence. Arsenal will go into the game expecting to at least have a certain amount of time where they are kind of pinned back and they are having to look for an outball. I think Jokeres might be the slightly better bet there, but I wonder whether Jokeres has almost played for the first hour with the aim of then bringing Havertz on to ask more questions as the defence gets tired. I think they both play, but my guess would be Jokeres starts. God, it's fascinating. Jokeres has played well when he can physically dominate the centre-backs.

11:54That is quite a pair of centre-backs to dominate. We'll see.

12:01We pivot to the Parisians. One year ago, PSG clicked Premier League team after Premier League team in their merry way to culminate in the dismantling of Arsenal in the Champions League semi-final. A 3-1 aggregate. Real masterclass technically, which was a prelude of that decimation of Inter. in the final. For the PSG squad, that sensation of dominating Arsenal on the European night will be baked into their muscle memory. Core of the team remains intact. Dembele and Hakimi are both back from injury and training. This PSG team, it also has to be noted, are so strangely box-fresh. Manager Luis Enrique, he rests his players for huge spells in league-earn games.

12:43Often, look at the stars, number of games they play. Your Belonda all-winner Dembele started just 11 of 34 PSG league games. Neves, Mendes, Fabian Ruiz made 13 starts each. Kavaraj, Skellia, just 18. You compare that to this Arsenal core, who are what? They're in their, like, is it 63rd game of the season? When you think about that, the energy levels, just the data, the tired legs, the tired minds. I'd say PSG are going to be salivating to attack, particularly down their left channel through Kavaradona. Ben White injured right back. Good news is Duran Timber is back in training for Arsenal, but he's been out of the matchday squad since March.

13:26So it's quite a gamble roar for Mikel Oteta. What does he do here? You know, when Luis Enrique does his weird alpha kickoff routine and then unfurls Kavaradz, Skellia, like Pavlov's dog, down that left wing. You know, there'll be Usman Dembele spelling time there, Desiree Dwey to change that point of attack. That is the position that's going to win the Champions League, isn't it? Whoever wins that battle.

13:50Roger Bennett:I think it's very hard to see Arsenal winning it if they can't shut down Kvaric Gelia. As much as a lot of the credit for winning it last year seemed to run through Dembele, it was almost as though PSG's victory was his victory. It was the moment that he finally fulfilled the potential that we'd all seen for so long. It does feel as though this season, Kvaric Gelia in Europe has been the standout performer. He's the one you have to shut down. He's the one who kind of embodies PSG to an extent, that combination of skill, determination. They're the ingredients for all of PSG's players. They've got that fluidity, that dynamism that they play with.

14:22Roger Bennett:Having Timber back is really important for Arsenal because he is such an attacking threat, counterintuitively, that he does add so much to Arsenal down the right flank. And probably the best way to defend Tveric Schellier is to force him to be in his own half. I guess the question that Arteta has to answer, the gamble he has to make, is how fit can Uri and Timber actually be? How much can he live with someone like that who has got that kind of engine that just keeps going? Do you want someone who is just coming up to speed? It might be that Timber has got, that Timber having had a couple of months out can do 90 minutes and maybe not a huge amount more, but he can stick with that job for one game.

15:04Roger Bennett:The risk is that you play him because you're desperate to have him back. And by 45 minutes, by an hour, He's starting to really struggle because Farrac Delia will ask him as many questions as possible and he will ask them again and again and again. What's fascinating about this PSG team rule is we think about them operating at just complete cocaine bear nosebleed, frightening pace, stretching the field, creating almost a whirlwind of chances. The attacking force has carried them all the way. 44 goals, is it, in this entire campaign? Just one shy of the all-time single season record set by Barcelona back in 2000.

15:36But that return leg in Munich was a very different martial art. It's like jiu-jitsu. They broke through early and just transformed themselves into a controlled, disciplined, shut-down, smothering blanket of a team. They made Michael Alise look like Michael Keane. They made Harry Kane unable to get on the ball. Luis Diaz looked like Luis CK. What was thought to be one of most Europe's vaunted attacks looked like, well, like Beto and Barry were playing up front. And then PSG have this almost dual capacity where they can transform the match into a multi-goal fest or retreat into a tactical shell and absorb the pressure.

16:13Which side of this PSG strategy do you expect Luis Enrique to unleash from the off against Arsenal?

16:20Roger Bennett:A little bit of both, Rog, which sounds a lot like me sitting on the fence. But I think he'll know that you can't just hurl yourself at Arsenal. That they will, more than any other team in Europe, they're probably set up to absorb that kind of pressure. and they have more than enough on the counter-attack to hurt you, to pick you off, whether it's Jokeres or Havertz that starts. You have Bukayo Saka on one win. You might have Eberetje-Eze coming in from the other. If not, it's Martinelli, Odegaard. They've got these players who can hurt you. To be honest, sometimes all they need is a corner. So I don't think it will be kind of full death or glory, just go for it from PSG.

16:54Roger Bennett:I do wonder to what extent that performance in Munich was a warning to Arsenal, that PSG can make the game be whatever they want the game to be. They don't have to play in a certain way. They can attack you, they can throw themselves at you, and they can beat you. But if they need to keep you at arm's length and control you, they can do that too. And I think that was maybe designed to just sow a little seed of doubt in people's minds to say, actually, PSG can do two things. Sending signals even as they qualify. That is 4D crap, however you see that in French. We've got Arsenal chasing a one trophy.

17:27The club has never won. And we've got PSG trying to defend the trophy. They finally won and truly, truly craved. What a clash. Two clubs have met seven times before. Almost nothing between them. Two Arsenal wins, two PSG wins, three draws. Arsenal have the defensive record. They have the set-piece threat. They have the hunger of a club trying to complete the greatest season in its entire history. PSG, though. The experience, the movement. So many attacking duels who can just viciously knot your teeth out in the blink of an eye. Spoiler alert, Roar. How is this Champions League final finishing?

18:03Roger Bennett:First and foremost, Roger, I just think it's the most exciting final, certainly since 2022. It's the first really well-poised final since Real Madrid-Liverpool, I think, because the last three have all had something to recommend them. And Man City against the Inter in 2023 was fascinating in a way that maybe we didn't expect it to be. but I think in all three of the last three finals one team has gone in as overwhelming favourites and they have ultimately won some of them have won slightly more narrowly than we expected but all three have felt a bit like a mismatch this isn't a mismatch you'd probably make PSG favourites narrowly but not by a vast amount and it certainly isn't hard to build a case that Arsenal win it and I've got to admit my sense is that Arsenal's defence outweighs PSG's attack I think that Mikel Arteta he's got that bonus of knowing that he's a winner As you say, they've kind of got that Premier League in the bag.

18:54Roger Bennett:That lifts the pressure off just a little bit. They still have that kind of soaring feeling of triumph and glory. And I think they take it 2-1, fence in no small part to Gabriel's head. Kalshi have PSG 57 % edge. I've got to say, I believe Arsenal. I do. I believe in them. I really am the team of destiny, man. I do. I think they're on the hero's journey road. They are. It's Homer's Odyssey. I've talked about that. I read the Iliad last night, and I was like, oh my God, there's a bit of that in Arsenal too. I think this is going to be a shootout. I think it's going to be a slog. I think we extra time.

19:27I think Arsenal win 3-2. I see Trossard build that statue. Warby Parker.

19:35Raw, talking about European triumph. We have to, before we let you go, talk about Crystal Palace. Conference League champion, Crystal Palace European champions. John Philippe Mateta scored the winner against a very brave Rio Vallecano in Leipzig. I found it incredibly moving to watch the entire team after Mateta scored execute his signature Kung Fu kick behind him. What a performance from England's non-World Cup in Adam Walson. What leadership from departing manager Glasner came, he saw, he conquered twice. Crystal Palace, no silverware in 119 years. Now they have an FA Cup and the Conference League back-to-back.

20:15After being cruelly booted out of the Europa League by UEFA for multi-club ownership infraction ahead of this one, they are in their rightful competition next year. It's beautiful. It's cosmic. It's justice. It's good guys winning, as Steve Parrish said, the CEO of the club. I mean, I'm so blown away. Eberichie Eze left. Mark Gahey decamped. They still kept going, even when they slumped and it felt dark. and their fans were in agony mid-season. Manager announced he was leaving. That was dark too. But now the world is filled with palace joy. So let's ignore the storyline about how Premier League financial might has given London clubs in particular a virtual lock on conference league play in the last couple of years.

20:57God bless them all. Brighton apparently, I don't know if you know, they've already won in 2026-27. But this palace, rescued by Steve Paris 16 years ago from extinction, they've really suffered agonies. It's been a footnote in London kind of footballing history to rise up and experience this kind of joy that will be sung for generations. It's an ecstatic achievement, right? It's funny how this lifetime European tour, which is how they felt about this when it began, it's now going to be twice within 24 months.