Slavia Prague vs Arsenal preview, team news, h2h: 5 Nigerian lads ready for Gunners test

Slavia Prague vs Arsenal takes centre-stage in the UEFA Champions League as the Gunners aim to continue their unbeaten start to the campaign.

Five Nigerians will be in and around Slavia Prague’s matchday squad when they host Arsenal in the Champions League on Wednesday.

Super Eagles defender Igoh Ogbu is unlikely to make the starting lineup for the encounter as he continues his recovery from an injury sideline.

However, the quartet of Samuel Isife, David Moses, and in-form pair Mubarak Suleiman and Emmanuel Ayaosi are all part of a Czech side chasing something it has never managed against the Gunners: a goal at home.

Moses, 22, has reportedly earned a maiden call-up to the senior Super Eagles squad for Nigeria’s November Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against Tanzania, and arrives at this fixture in excellent club form.

Arsenal, the reigning Premier League champions and currently top of that division again this season, go into Fortuna Arena unbeaten in eighteen consecutive Champions League matches, a club record.

Slavia Prague sit at the opposite end of continental form, winless in eighteen straight UEFA fixtures and second-bottom of the thirty-six team league phase table, even as they lead the Czech First League by seven points.

Twelve months ago to the week, Arsenal won this exact fixture three-nil at the same stadium, a night remembered in north London for a different reason: sixteen-year-old Max Dowman became the youngest player in Champions League history.

Dowman returns to Prague still only sixteen, this time with his name in the news for a red card rather than a record, though the domestic ban he is serving does not follow him into Europe.

Slavia Prague vs Arsenal: Match radar

⚽ Slavia Prague vs Arsenal
Competition	UEFA Champions League, League Phase, Matchday 4
Kickoff	Wednesday, November 4, 2026, 20:00 (UK time)
Venue	Fortuna Arena, Prague
Where to Watch	Check local listings
🇳🇬 Four Nigerians in Slavia’s squad: Ogbu, Moses, Suleiman and Ayaosi

Slavia Prague vs Arsenal: Gunners’ machine meets hosts’ home discomfort

Arsenal have taken seven points from a possible nine in the league phase, beating Napoli away from home before putting three without reply past Lille.

Their only dropped points came in a two-all draw at Bayern Munich on October 21. That return leaves Mikel Arteta’s side seventh of thirty-six sides in the competition, with a goal difference of plus four.

Domestically, Arsenal top the Premier League with twenty-four points from nine matches, eight wins and only a single defeat, three points clear of Manchester City.

Slavia Prague’s season tells two different stories. In the Czech First League they have been irresistible, leading the table by seven points under long-serving coach Jindřich Trpišovský.

In Europe it has been the opposite: one point from three league-phase matches, beaten at Sabah and at home to Lens either side of a two-all draw at Fenerbahçe.

They are winless in eighteen straight UEFA fixtures stretching back through last season. Three home meetings with Arsenal in European competition have brought three Slavia defeats and not a single Slavia goal.

Slavia Prague vs Arsenal: Head-to-head weighs in Gunners’ favour

The sides have met five times, all in UEFA competition, and Arsenal have never lost: three wins and two draws. The joint-biggest win of Arsenal’s entire history in European competition came against this opponent, a seven-nil victory in the Champions League group stage in October 2007.

The reverse fixture three weeks later finished goalless. A Europa League quarter-final followed in 2021, Tomáš Holeš, still part of this Slavia squad, scoring the equaliser in a one-all draw at the Emirates. Arsenal won the return leg four-nil in Prague.

Twelve months ago at Fortuna Arena, Arsenal won three-nil through Bukayo Saka and a Mikel Merino brace, with Dowman’s record-breaking cameo the other headline of the night.

Arsenal have beaten Czech opposition in all eleven previous UEFA meetings and kept a clean sheet in six straight away trips to Czechia.

Slavia Prague vs Arsenal: Team news place four Nigerians in contention

Slavia’s team news is dominated by the continued absence of top scorer Tomáš Chorý, dropped by the club roughly a fortnight ago after a fourth red card in two seasons. That card came for gesturing at the referee during a goalless draw with Hradec Králové.

Adonija Ouanda, Eliáš Piták and Ivan Schranz are all definitely out, while doubts hang over goalkeeper Jakub Markovič, winger Lukáš Provod, Samuel Isife and Ange N’Guessan. That leaves Nazar Domchak as the likely starting goalkeeper.

Emmanuel Ayaosi, tied for the most goal involvements in the Slavia squad this season with four goals and two assists, is expected to start, alongside countrymen Samuel Isife, Mubarak Suleiman and David Moses.

Super Eagles defender Igoh Ogbu, who has been spitting some money wisdom, is available from the bench. Arsenal have their own absentees in Bukayo Saka, out until early December with a quadriceps injury, and William Saliba, missing until late November with a back problem, while Eberechi Eze carries a doubt.

Max Dowman is available despite serving a three-match domestic ban, which does not extend to the Champions League.

Four players who missed recent matches, Christos Tzolis, Declan Rice, Noni Madueke and Riccardo Calafiori, have all returned to contention after featuring in the weekend win at Liverpool.

Slavia Prague	Arsenal
Out: Chorý (disciplinary), Ouanda (muscular), Piták (ankle), Schranz (illness) Doubtful: Markovič, Provod, Isife, N’Guessan	Out: Saka (quadriceps), Saliba (back) Doubtful: Eze. Available: Dowman (domestic ban only)

Slavia Prague vs Arsenal star player watch: Nowak’s goals against Ødegaard’s craft

Wiktor Nowak has emerged as Slavia’s most productive forward this season. Arsenal captain Martin Ødegaard remains the creative heartbeat Mikel Arteta leans on most heavily.

Wiktor Nowak Forward · Slavia Prague	Stat	Martin Ødegaard Midfielder · Arsenal
5 (league)	Goals	2 (Premier League)
1 (league)	Assists	0 (Premier League)
887 mins	Minutes played	739 mins
7.49	FotMob rating	7.51

Slavia Prague vs Arsenal: The managers

Jindřich Trpišovský has been in charge at Slavia Prague since 2017, building the identity of a team that has dominated Czech football under him even as continental nights have proved far tougher.

His side’s seven-point cushion at the top of the First League shows a manager with few peers domestically who has yet to find a formula that travels in Europe.

Mikel Arteta arrives in Prague with Arsenal as reigning Premier League champions and sitting top of the table again, the architect of a Champions League run now unbeaten in eighteen matches.

His week has not been entirely smooth, with Arsenal’s EFL Cup exit at fourth-tier Fleetwood Town, and the fallout from Dowman’s red card, still being talked about in London.

Slavia Prague vs Arsenal: Tactical preview

Trpišovský is likely to set Slavia up in a back three protected by a four-man midfield screen, with Suleiman and Ayaosi linking play into Nowak as the furthest man forward.

It is a shape built to stay compact and break at pace rather than dominate the ball against stronger opposition. The gap left by Chorý’s absence takes some physical presence out of that forward line.

Arsenal’s centre-backs, whoever is selected, are unlikely to be troubled by it given Slavia’s return of just four goals from three league-phase matches.

Arsenal’s own shape is harder to call this time out, with Raya behind a back four and either a more controlling midfield three or a different front line.

Wherever Arteta leans, Arsenal’s numbers in midfield should give them the platform to work the ball into the areas Slavia have struggled to defend all season.

Slavia Prague vs Arsenal: The Naija Slip

Punters eyeing this one have decent value to work with, even with Arsenal priced as short favourites across the board.

Slavia Prague vs Arsenal: Score prediction

🔮 Slavia Prague 0 – 3 Arsenal

Arsenal have won this exact fixture by three clear goals before and arrive with greater firepower and sharper continental form across the pitch. Likely scorers: Martin Ødegaard, Kai Havertz.