The 7,000 minutes difference - why PSG could have edge over Arsenal

Arsenal are bidding to win their first Champions League on Saturday

When the best teams in England and France go head-to-head in Saturday's Champions League final it will mark a thrilling end to a gruelling season for both clubs.

The showpiece event at Budapest's Puskas Arena will be the 63rd game of the campaign for Arsenal, who were in the hunt for four trophies until early April. It's Paris St-Germain's 56th, not including the seven at last summer's Club World Cup.

With a World Cup around the corner, there is no let up for the elite players on both sides. But, by one measure, it's the French club whose stars enter the contest fresher.

Luis Enrique has rested many of his key players for Ligue 1 games this season, a luxury afforded to him by weaker domestic opposition and incredible squad depth built with the enormous financial backing of the club's Qatari owners.

Because of their 11th-place finish in the league phase, PSG have racked up 16 Champions League games to reach the final (winning a two-legged knockout phase play-off against French rivals Monaco), while Arsenal have played 14.

Of those who lined up for the clubs' respective semi-final second legs, Mikel Arteta's starting 11 amassed almost 7,000 extra minutes of playing time in league games this season (6,726 to be precise).

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Some of the numbers for individual players are eye-catching.

Les Parisiens' club captain Marquinhos has started 14 of those European games – the same number of total appearances he made in the league (11 starts, three as a substitute).

From 13 February to 19 April, the decorated Brazil defender didn't see a single minute of league action, remaining an unused sub in seven successive games. He played every minute of the holders' six Champions League fixtures in that timeframe.

Ballon d'Or holder Ousmane Dembele completed 90 minutes in the league only once in 22 appearances. Fellow forward Khvicha Kvaratskhelia played for the duration just twice in 28 matches.

On 12 May, Dembele controversially won the Ligue 1 player-of-the-season award for the second year in a row, registering 10 goals and seven assists.

He started a mere 11 league games (nine at the time of the award), featuring in 22 out of a possible 34 overall, although a succession of injury problems did cause him to miss 10 of those.

Luis Enrique's policy of rotation – he used 28 players in league fixtures versus Arteta's 25 – did come at some cost, albeit not a telling one.

Three of their six league defeats – against Marseille in September, Monaco in November and Lyon in April – came immediately after Champions League ties.

Midfielder Warren Zaire-Emery played more league minutes than anyone else in the PSG squad with 2,453. Six Arsenal players clocked up more than that.

The notion that England's top flight is the best in Europe is not purely down to Anglocentric bias; Uefa's association club coefficients rank the Premier League as the continent's top division, with Ligue 1 fifth.

It should be said that PSG played a mammoth 58 games last season en route to a superb four-trophy haul that included a maiden Champions League success in which they overcame Arsenal 3-1 on aggregate in the semi-final. The Ligue 1 campaign is also four games shorter than the Premier League's, owing to its 18-team format.

Regardless, Arsenal's key players have undoubtedly been putting a shift in. Goalkeeper David Raya had played every minute of the season until he was rested on the final day against Crystal Palace with the title already in the bag.

Declan Rice, William Saliba, Gabriel and Martin Zubimendi have also started at least 30 league games for the north London club, something only Zaire-Emery can say for their opponents (the Gunners' Jurrien Timber, who has been injured since mid-March and remains a huge doubt for the final, still managed more minutes than him).

Of the 10 players with the most league minutes for either club this season, just two, Zaire-Emery and Illia Zabarnyi, play for the Paris outfit.

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