Ludogorets bid to avenge Arsenal's six-goal show

Arsenal FC's 6-0 romp on matchday three maintained their unbeaten start in UEFA Champions League Group A and PFC Ludogorets Razgrad, who are stuck on one point, have it all to do when the teams meet again in Sofia.

• Mesut Özil scored a second-half hat-trick – the first of his career – to build on goals from Alexis Sánchez and Theo Walcott with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain also on target.

• If one of Arsenal or Paris Saint-Germain win and the other avoids defeat, both are through. Either both or neither will qualify on Tuesday.

Match background 

Ludogorets
• Their only previous encounter with English opponents came in the 2014/15 group stage, their first appearance among the continent's elite. They lost 2-1 at Liverpool FC and then drew 2-2 at home. Dani Abalo, who had equalised in added time (90+1) at Anfield only for Steven Gerrard to convert from the spot two minutes later, opened the scoring on three minutes. After Liverpool had forged ahead, Terziev then got an 88th-minute equaliser.

• In that 2014/15 campaign, Ludogorets picked up four points, beating Basel at home in what was the first-ever victory by a Bulgarian team in the competition.

• Ludogorets' second UEFA Champions League group stage campaign began with a 1-1 draw at FC Basel 1893. Two weeks later they lost 3-1 at home to Paris – in both games they had taken the lead before being pegged back.

• After winning the Bulgarian title for the fifth season in a row, Ludogorets scored 15 goals in the qualifying campaign to book their return to the group stage.

• They first beat FK Mladost Podgorica 2-0 at home and 3-0 away. Against FK Crvena zvezda they followed a 2-2 draw at home with a 4-2 extra-time win away. Wanderson scored three of the goals in the away leg.

• In the play-offs a 2-0 home win over FC Viktoria Plzeň set up a 4-2 aggregate victory.

Arsenal
• The Gunners, who had not previously faced Bulgarian opponents, began their 19th successive group stage campaign with a 1-1 draw in Paris, where Olivier Giroud was sent off in added time. They then beat Basel at home with an early pair of Theo Walcott goals and share top billing with Paris on seven points. 

• In each of the last six seasons Arsenal have fallen in the round of 16, going down 5-1 on aggregate to FC Barcelona in 2015/16 (0-2 home, 1-3 away). In their group home matches last term they first lost 3-2 to Olympiacos FC before beating FC Bayern München 2-0 and GNK Dinamo Zagreb 3-0.

• Arsenal have lost three of their last five European away games; before that they had met defeat only twice in 11 games on the road.

Coach and player links
• Claidiu Keșerü was a team-mate of Laurent Koscielny and Giroud at French second division side Tours FC in 2008/09.

• Igor Plastun and Lucas Pérez were team-mates at Ukrainian side FC Karpaty Lviv during 2012/13.

Match facts

Ludogorets
• Natanael is a yellow card away from a one-match ban.

• Since their heavy defeat in London, Ludogorets have recorded 4-0 wins against Lokomotiv Gorna Oryahovitsa and PFC Montana 1921, then beat Dunav Ruse 5-3 on Friday.

• The Montana fixture was in the Bulgarian Cup round of 16. The quarter-finals are scheduled for early April.

• Keșerü has scored seven goals in his last three games, including a hat-trick at Dunav.

Arsenal
• Arsenal are 14 matches unbeaten since the 4-3 loss to Liverpool on the opening weekend of the Premier League season.

• The Gunners have kept a clean sheet in seven of their last nine fixtures, the exception beings the 3-2 home victory over Swansea City AFC on 15 October and Saturday's 4-1 success against Sunderland AFC.

• Carl Jenkinson, who spent the last two seasons on loan at West Ham United FC, made his first Arsenal appearance for 898 days as the north Londoners overcame Reading FC 2-0 in the English League Cup fourth round on 25 October.

• Having not played since 14 August because of a hamstring problem, Aaron Ramsey came off the bench in the Sunderland game and swiftly set up Alexis Sánchez for Arsenal's fourth goal.

• Captain Per Mertesacker is not in Arsenal's group stage squad because of a knee injury. A similar problem is likely to keep Danny Welbeck out until 2017.