We play for the Champions League for the first time in 20 years on Saturday evening at the Puskás Aréna in Budapest. Our league season ended with Martin Odegaard lifting the Premier League trophy at Selhurst Park four days ago. What remains is the one competition this club has never won, against the defending champions who knocked us out of it last season. The tactical contest at the heart of it is as clean a collision as European football has produced in years: the best defence in the competition against the most prolific attack.

We have conceded six goals in 14 Champions League matches this season and David Raya has kept nine clean sheets in 13 appearances. Meanwhile, PSG have scored 44, one short of the all-time record. Dembele, Kvaratskhelia, and Doue have torn through Chelsea, Liverpool, and Bayern Munich across three knockout rounds. These two sets of styles and philosophies will spend 90 minutes trying to cancel each other out on Saturday.

PSG put eight past Chelsea across two legs in the round of 16. They beat Liverpool 4-0 on aggregate in the quarter-finals. Against Bayern Munich in the semi-finals, the tie finished 6-5 on aggregate after a 5-4 first leg in Paris that was among the most chaotic Champions League matches in recent memory. Kvaratskhelia scored in all three knockout rounds. Dembele, the reigning Ballon d'Or winner, has 19 goals and 11 assists in all competitions this season. Desire Doue, still only 20, has been their most dangerous creator in the tournament.

What makes PSG's front three distinct from the attacking threats we handled in the knockout phase is the speed of their transitions. Atletico Madrid, who we beat in the semi-finals, are a possession-limiting side that defends deep and counters through set moments. Luis Enrique's system is the opposite: controlled chaos in the attacking third, with Kvaratskhelia drifting centrally from the left, Dembele roaming across the front line, and Doue operating between the lines with a freedom that none of our previous opponents' attackers had. The ball moves quickly from back to front through Vitinha and Joao Neves, and the full-backs push high to provide width when the forwards cut inside.

While we have been superb at defending structured attacks this season, defending against improvised ones at the same level, with attackers with this much quality in transition, will be a different test entirely.

Achraf Hakimi, considered by many as the best right-back in world football currently, sustained a thigh injury in the semi-final first leg against Bayern and has not played since. RMC Sport reported on Tuesday that he joined training at Campus PSG, but he is considered unlikely to start. His absence could give us a slight advantage, because without him PSG lose their most dangerous overlapping runner on the right side.

Warren Zaire-Emery, an exceptional player in his own right, will likely fill in for Hakimi, but his defensive instincts in wide areas are less developed than the Moroccan. If that happens, then PSG's width on the right will come primarily from Dembele dropping deep or Doue drifting wide, pulling bodies away from the central areas where they are most dangerous. If Hakimi is fit enough for the bench, he becomes a second-half threat Arteta will need to manage; if he starts, everything I am about to say about our left side changes.

Dembele himself had an injury scare but has said he expects to be fit: "I am doing very well. I had a slight scare against Paris FC, but I am fine and I will be ready for the final." Bradley Barcola, their top Ligue 1 scorer, has completed 90 minutes only once in his last ten appearances after an ankle injury sustained in the round of 16 and is unlikely to be at full capacity if he features.

Our defensive record in this competition is historically good. We have conceded two goals in the entire knockout phase this season: one against Leverkusen in the round of 16 first leg, and Alvarez's penalty at Atletico in the semi-final first leg, awarded for a Ben White handball. Not a single opposition player has beaten Raya from open play in the knockout rounds since March.

Our centre-back pair of Gabriel and Saliba are the foundation. They have played every minute of the Champions League knockout phase together, and the understanding between them is now at a level where positional adjustments happen without communication. When Saliba steps to cover a runner in behind, Gabriel drops to fill the space he vacated. When Gabriel pushes out to win a header, Saliba sweeps behind him. It is a partnership refined across three consecutive Champions League campaigns. Luis Enrique called us "the best defensive team in Europe" in his pre-final press conference, and that partnership is why.

In front of them, Myles Lewis-Skelly and Rice will have to ensure that PSG's transitions do not find any space. Lewis-Skelly's ability to tuck inside and form a back three when we are defending in our own half gives Gabriel and Saliba the cover they need against PSG's fluid front line. Rice screens the centre-backs and cuts off the passing lanes into the pockets where Doue and Kvaratskhelia want to receive. If those two do their jobs, PSG will be reduced to only half-chances similar to that Atletico and Sporting generated against us in the knockout rounds.

Obviously our squad is not at full strength. Ben White is out for the season with a knee ligament injury sustained at West Ham, which removes our most natural defensive right-back. Jurrien Timber has been out since March with a groin injury and remains a doubt for Saturday, though Ronald Koeman included him in the Netherlands' World Cup squad yesterday, which suggests his recovery is further along than the cautious public framing indicated. If Timber is unavailable, Cristhian Mosquera will continue at right-back. The young Spaniard has been solid across the final stretch of the season, but the prospect of him facing Kvaratskhelia is a little concerning for me. It is a chance, however, we must take, because Arteta’s little experiment of slotting Declan Rice in that position against West Ham showed us how dangerous that can be. This is where Saliba's covering speed will need to compensate for a positional mismatch.

The biggest positive is Mikel Merino. He has been out since February with a foot injury that required surgery, but he came off the bench in the second half against Crystal Palace on Saturday and looked sharp enough to contribute. He is not fit to start in Budapest, but having an experienced player on the bench who can play as a six, an eight, or a false nine gives Arteta options in the final 20 minutes that could decide this match.

I want to win the Champions League on Saturday evening in Budapest, with this squad and this manager, because no Arsenal side has ever done it and this is the closest we have been since Sol Campbell headed ten-man Arsenal in front at the Stade de France and we let it slip against Barcelona. Twenty years of wondering what might have been if Lehmann had not been sent off, if we had held on for another 14 minutes. Every Arsenal supporter carries that baggage. No Arsenal side has ever won the league and the European Cup in the same season. Winning means this group will achieve something none of their predecessors managed, not the 1971 double side, the 1998 double side, or the 2004 Invincibles. Winning on Saturday will mean this squad writes the chapter the 2006 side never got to finish.

PSG will have the ball more than us, and there will be passages where Dembele finds pockets of space and Kvaratskhelia runs at our right-back and the Puskás Aréna feels like it is tilting away from us. Those moments are coming. They came in Lisbon when Raya tipped Araujo's shot onto the crossbar inside six minutes and Sporting penned us in for the opening quarter of the match. They came at the Metropolitano when Atletico forced us deep for 20 minutes after half-time and Griezmann hit the bar. In both rounds we absorbed the pressure, stayed in the contest, and found the decisive moment when it mattered. That is what this squad does, and it is what separates this Arsenal side from the 2006 team that could not hold on when Barcelona finally threw everything at them.

Our route to goals is through the areas where PSG are weakest. Set pieces will be crucial, where we have been the most dangerous team in English football for four consecutive seasons. We have to utilise transition moments through Saka and Eze, who have the pace to exploit the high line PSG play when they commit full-backs forward.

The one genuine concern I have though is player fatigue. We have played 59 matches this season. PSG finished their domestic campaign on May 17, giving them an additional week of recovery. If the match goes to extra time, their freshness could become a factor. That’s why we need to win this inside 90 minutes, because the longer it goes, the more it favours PSG.

In 2006, we were the underdogs who nearly pulled off something extraordinary and fell short. On Saturday, we will step on to the pitch as the Premier League champions, the only unbeaten side in this season's Champions League. If Raya, Saliba, Gabriel, Rice and Saka perform to the level they have performed this season, we win the Champions League, and 20 years of what-ifs will end in Budapest.