Arsenal v Vitória SC facts

Last season's runners-up Arsenal have made a perfect start to their UEFA Europa League campaign and will fancy their chances of making it three wins from three at home to a Vitória SC side who have lost their opening two Group F fixtures.

• A youthful Gunners side followed up their eye-catching 3-0 win at Eintracht Frankfurt on Matchday 1 with a 4-0 dismantling of Standard Liège in north London, Gabriel Martinelli leading the way with two early strikes on his European debut. But while Arsenal are yet to concede, Vitória are still seeking their first goal, having lost 0-2 in Liege and 0-1 in Guimaraes against Eintracht Frankfurt.

Previous meetings
• The clubs are meeting for the first time in UEFA competition.

• Arsenal have a mixed record against Portuguese opposition but at home their record is W4 D1 L1, with no defeats and no goals conceded in the last five such matches. A 0-0 draw against Sporting CP in last season's group stage ended a run of four straight wins in the UEFA Champions League, the first three against Porto.

• The Guimaraes club's two previous visits to England in UEFA competition, both in the first round of the UEFA Cup, have brought two defeats and no goals – 0-5 against Aston Villa in 1983 and 0-2 against Portsmouth in 2008.

Form guide
Arsenal
• UEFA Champions League ever-presents for 19 successive seasons from 1998/99 to 2016/17, Arsenal reached the UEFA Europa League semi-finals at the first attempt in 2017/18, losing to eventual winners Atlético, before going one step further and making it to last season's final, where they were defeated 4-1 by London rivals Chelsea.

• Fifth place in the 2018/19 Premier League secured a third successive UEFA Europa League group stage berth for the Gunners, who had won five European games in a row – one against Rennes, two apiece against Napoli and Valencia – before the loss in Baku.

• Arsenal picked up seven points at home in each of their previous two UEFA Europa League group stage campaigns. They have not conceded home or away in any of their last seven group encounters and have won seven of their last eight UEFA Europa League matches. Their home record in this competition is W11 D3 L1, six straight victories following last season's draw against Sporting, five of them with clean sheets.

Vitória SC
• Fifth in the Portuguese Liga last season, Vitória qualified for their fifth European campaign this decade and first since 2017/18, when they finished fourth in their UEFA Europa League group.

• Qualifying wins in the summer against Jeunesse Esch (1-0 a, 4-0 h), Ventspils (3-0 a, 6-0 h) and FCSB (0-0 a, 1-0 h) enabled the Guimaraes club to make a third appearance in the UEFA Europa League group stage. They have yet to make further progress in the competition, however, finishing third in their section on debut in 2013/14. Back in 2005/06 they also finished bottom of their UEFA Cup group.

• Vitória were without a win in 13 UEFA away matches (D3 L10) – a run stretching back to a 1-0 victory at Wisła Kraków in September 2005 – before they defeated Jeunesse in this season's second qualifying round. They have yet to win away in nine UEFA Cup/UEFA Europa League group games (D2 L7), succumbing to defeats in each of the last four.

Links and trivia 
• Arsenal defender David Luiz played in Portugal for Benfica from 2007 to 2011, winning the Liga title in 2009/10.

• London-born England youth international Marcus Edwards joined Vitória this summer from Arsenal's local rivals Tottenham Hotspur, where he was an academy graduate but made only one League Cup substitute appearance for the first team.

• Léo Bonatini is currently on loan to Vitória from Wolverhampton Wanderers, for whom he made six Premier League appearances last season. His current team-mate Ola John also briefly played on loan for Wolves in 2016/17 after spending the whole of the previous season at another English club, Reading.

The coaches
• After two years with Paris Saint-Germain that yielded seven domestic trophies, Unai Emery was appointed as Arsenal manager in May 2018, replacing the long-serving Arsène Wenger. The Spaniard oversaw Sevilla's historic hat-trick of successes in the UEFA Europa League from 2013/14 to 2015/16, having assumed control following a four-year tenure at Valencia and a brief stint at Spartak Moskva. A finalist again with the Gunners in 2018/19, he has been in charge of more UEFA Europa League games than any other coach, this being his 77th.

• An unexpected sixth-placed finish with Moreirense in the 2018/19 Portuguese Liga – in his only season with the club – earned Ivo Vieira a summer move to a Vitória SC side that finished on the same number of points but one place higher. A native of Madeira, he spent the whole of his playing career on the island with Nacional, which is where he also started his coaching path. Indeed, he did not work in mainland Portugal until May 2016, when he was handed the coaching reins at second-tier Aves. He subsequently took charge of Académica Coimbra and Estoril.

FootballPeople weeks
The FootballPeople weeks take place from 10 to 24 October 2019 and are organised by UEFA's social responsibility partner Fare. The weeks are a global campaign aimed at tackling discrimination and celebrating diversity in football. The UEFA Europa League is offering its full support to the FootballPeople weeks; teams will line up for a mixed photo with the referees, while an #EqualGame hashtag will also be on display. Videos will be played on giant screens at stadiums across Europe, and child mascots will be wearing #FootballPeople t-shirts. UEFA's collaboration with the Fare network's FootballPeople weeks has been running since 2001. The aim of this initiative fits in perfectly with the goals of #EqualGame, which is looking to promote inclusion, diversity and accessibility.