Ex-Real Madrid Team-Mates Mesut Ozil and Angel Di Maria Key to PSG-Arsenal Clash

In April of 2013, Angel Di Maria and Mesut Ozil started alongside one another in the second-leg of Real Madrid's Champions League semi-final against Borussia Dortmund. 

Ozil picked up an assist as Los Merengues won 2-0, but the disastrous 4-1 first-leg defeat proved too much to overcome. 

The German was sold to Arsenal the following summer, with Di Maria remaining in Madrid to play a starring role in the long-awaited Decima. 

Perhaps no other player was more important in finally ending Real Madrid's seemingly ill-fated pursuit of their 10th European Cup. 

He scored three goals and created six more en route to glory in Lisbon but also departed, joining Paris Saint-Germain via Manchester United. 

Ozil and Di Maria have met just twice since. 

Their first meeting was an explosive FA Cup quarter-final in which Di Maria was sent off and Ozil assisted Arsenal's opening goal. 

The second, the reverse fixture of Wednesday night's hugely significant match, saw impressive performances from both. 

Di Maria ran the Gunners ragged while Ozil began the move that culminated in Arsenal's equaliser. 

Now it is time for part two. 

Whichever side emerges with the victory will finish top of Group A and seal the theoretically easier path to the latter stages of the competition that that entails. 

Just last season, both Arsenal and PSG finished second in their groups, while Juventus also qualified by that route. There are no certainties in the Champions League, but top of the group is still a prize worth fighting for. 

For now, Arsenal hold a slight advantage, as they head the group thanks to a superior goal difference.  This is by no means sufficient insurance to motivate the Gunners to play for a draw. 

PSG and Arsenal have matches to come, against Ludogorets Razgrad and Basel, respectively. Both are unpredictable opponents who could be playing for Europa League qualification or nothing at all. 

Arsenal are enduring their traditional November struggles and are winless in their last two games. 

By contrast, Paris have won four straight in all competitions. 

Unai Emery believes that his side are stronger since their first meeting with Arsenal this season. 

Results have improved, but performances remain unconvincing.

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Both sides could use a statement victory here. 

In conversation with UEFA.fr (in French), Di Maria identified his former team-mate as Arsenal's key playmaker, saying "Ozil's passing is excellent, and he is surrounded by some very fast players."

In the injury-enforced absence of Santi Cazorla, Ozil has taken on added importance. 

While Di Maria astutely observed Ozil's importance as a playmaker for his team-mates, it is the German's return to a more direct role this season that has won him deserved plaudits. 

Not since his Real Madrid days has Ozil consistently run at opposition defenders and sought to carry the ball forward as often as he picks out his team-mates. 

Perhaps this has been a tactical direction from manager Arsene Wenger, but it seems more likely that the addition of holding players behind him is giving Ozil the confidence to take more risks. 

That spells danger for PSG. 

Ozil's partnership with Alexis Sanchez has been Arsenal's silver bullet this season, deployed to great effect in the Premier League and in Europe. 

The Chilean's constant movement means he will eventually end up in space, and Ozil will be anticipating those moments hungrily.

Even as PSG seek to deal with the threat of Ozil, their own attack is weakened by the absence of Layvin Kurzawa, as reported by L'Equipe (in French). 

His failure to travel to London is a body blow to PSG's hopes of upsetting their hosts. 

The flying full-back has been PSG's best player through the opening months of this campaign, and his pace down the left flank could have been decisive. 

In his place, Emery can retain veteran full-back Maxwell or pivot to Presnel Kimpembe. 

Kimpembe has deputised at left-back already this season, and he would more effectively tuck in alongside Thiago Silva and Marquinhos.

By compressing his back line, Emery could provide more effective cover against the surging runs that Ozil can produce. 

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Kimpembe brings the added value of being an excellent passer out from the back and would be in place to kick-start PSG counter-attacks from deep. 

This would free Marco Verratti from having to drop in every time his side win back possession and instead position himself to provide attacking support to the front line. 

Without Kurzawa in the side, Di Maria assumes yet greater importance to PSG's attack.  In Saturday's 2-0 win over Nantes, he gave perhaps his best performance of the season. 

He limped off injured and was a doubt for this match but has been handed a clean bill of health and will start at the Emirates. 

Di Maria has six assists in all competitions already this season, and he'll need all his creativity to unsettle Arsenal's resilient defence. 

The presence of Lucas Moura on the other flank and Edinson Cavani through the middle give Paris a front line to rival all but Real Madrid and Barcelona's acronymic attacking trios, but Di Maria is key. 

Stationed wide on the left, Di Maria has the freedom to carry the ball inside, searching for gaps into which he can slip passes or fire shots. 

Lucas has taken great strides this season.

Seeking the ball more often and making more mature decisions about when to arrive in the box mean he is growing into the potential that he has always possessed. He has seven goals already this season, more than halfway to last season's total in just 17 appearances. 

Cavani, thriving in the absence of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, responded to his abject display in the reverse fixture against Arsenal by rocketing to the top of Ligue 1's scoring charts. 

No player in French domestic football can boast more than the Uruguayan's 11 goals in as many appearances. 

His attacking team-mates create the space with their greater pace and more direct goal-threat but it is Di Maria who carries the creative burden in that area of the pitch. 

PSG travel to London knowing that a win is vital to their aspiration of breaking into Europe's elite. 

They face an opponent that has been at it far longer, 18 straight years, without gatecrashing the same group that Paris seek to join. 

That consistent inadequacy represents the ghost of Champions League future for PSG. 

It has only been four seasons, but Paris must take a step forward this season. 

After all, that was why Emery was recruited to replace Laurent Blanc. 

Vanquishing Arsenal in London would put them on the right track.