Why are Arsenal playing against Atalanta in the Champions League on a Thursday?

The Champions League is back for the 2024/25 season and Arsenal travel to Bergamo to start their continental campaign, but there is an unusual aspect to their first game.

In fact, given that this is a completely new format for the European calendar following UEFA’s comprehensive reform of the elite clubs’ competitive conditions, many This is unusual, starting with the fact that this is one of eight league games the Gunners play, rather than just six.

In addition, they will only play against eight of 36 opponents, play each of them only once and fight for at least a place in the top 24. So from now on there is a lot for them to get used to in the Champions League.

One of the most noticeable changes, however, affects Arsenal on the very first matchday: instead of the usual Tuesday or Wednesday, Mikel Arteta's team will face Atalanta on Thursday.

There is, however, a good reason for this, as UEFA confirmed at the draw a few weeks ago, when the Gunners faced teams such as PSG and Shakhtar Donetsk in addition to their first Serie A opponents.

To help keep the focus on the other competitions – the Europa League and Conference League both follow the wider format of a single giant league system from this year – UEFA explained that each competition will have a single matchweek in which it is the only European competition. This will allow more games to be highlighted and give fans the opportunity to tune in to these competitions during the week, which they may not otherwise have done as they would have already watched Champions League matches on the two previous nights.

This means that there will no longer be nine games on Tuesday and nine on Wednesday – as will be the case on the second matchday on 1 and 2 October and on matchdays three to seven – but the first half of the Champions League will be spread over three evenings.

There will be six matches played across all three competitions: the Gunners' Premier League rivals Liverpool and Aston Villa are in action on Tuesday 17 September, Manchester City play a day later and Arsenal themselves face Atalanta on Thursday 19 September.

The only other matchweek to deviate from the Tuesday-Wednesday format is the final one, matchweek eight, where all 18 matches will start simultaneously at 20:00 GMT on Wednesday 29 January 2025.

By then, the Gunners hope to have at least qualified for the play-off round. Or perhaps they can finish in the top eight of the league and go straight into the knockout round of the last 16 without having to go through the play-offs.