The North London club, crowned Premier League victors last week for their 2025/26 English top-flight campaign, still have work to do this season.
Arsenal will play their first Champions League final since 2006 against holders Paris Saint-Germain this weekend.
Arsenal have never won Europe’s most prestigious club tournament, having lost the previous final 2-1 to Barcelona, and they could be without a key figure in their pursuit of the trophy this weekend.
Will Andrea Berta receive a stadium ban for the Champions League final?
Their clash against PSG is also a grudge match of sorts for Mikel Arteta’s men, having faced off against the Ligue 1 champions last year en route to PSG’s eventual victory.
The French side prevailed in the Champions League semi-finals by an aggregate score of 3-1, with goals from Ousmane Dembele, Achraf Hakimi and Fabian Ruiz across the two games.
Arsenal won their last semi-final clash against Atletico Madrid by an aggregate score of 2-1, however, sporting director Andrea Berta appeared to butt heads with Diego Simeone in the fixture’s second leg.
Arsenal prevailed 1-0, with the event capped by a Berta and Simeone fight on the touchline, in which the Atletico Madrid boss left his technical area to push the Gunners director.
Berta attempted to get the referee’s attention, pleading him to blow the whistle as Arsenal were winding down the clock in a tense 1-0 victory.
This behaviour caught Simeone’s eye, who stormed over and appeared to push Berta, leading to the two men requiring separation.
Team staff intervened quickly, meaning the altercation did not physically escalate, however, Berta could be seen yelling and waving his arms animatedly in Simeone’s direction while being backed away.
As a result, this behaviour is highly unlikely to meet the threshold for a stadium ban, meaning the Gunners favourite will be present to see his side face off against PSG.
Stadium bans are exceedingly rare for team staff, with one notable exception being Jose Mourinho, who received one in 2015 for an abusive rant directed at referee Jon Moss.
Unless Berta’s words are revealed to be similarly abusive, or Simeone makes an official complaint, then the Italian director will be in Budapest to hopefully see his team lift the Champions League trophy, which has continually evaded the Gunners.
