PARIS -- Arsene Wenger leads Arsenal into a 19th consecutive Champions League campaign on Tuesday, but he could have been managing the team they face, Paris Saint-Germain.
The French giants have tried on a number of occasions to recruit Wenger to guide their processions to the Ligue 1 title and supplementary tilts at the Champions League, but he has rejected them each time.
"Because I love where I am," said Wenger when asked why he has turned the Parisians down. "I know well the owners [of PSG] but I feel always I am loyal to Arsenal football club. I think it's a club that has the qualities I love, and that's why."
This could be Wenger's last season in charge of Arsenal, as his contract expires at the end of the season. Wenger has always said he will honour that contract, and he has shown little inclination to actually leave next summer, but things could change between now and then.
"I just focus on the next game," he said. "I think I have played over 170 games in the Champions League and every time it's the same: you always want to do well in the next one. My personal case is not at stake in that at all."
In the last six editions of the Champions League, Arsenal have been knocked out in the second round, and on five of those occasions at least part of the reason for their elimination was because they came second in the group stage, thus facing a tougher opponent in the knockout.
This season they are favourites to finish top, with Tuesday's game in Paris nominally representing their toughest task. Wenger said he is all-too aware that a good start is therefore required.
"Last year we were second because Bayern were in front of us," he said. "We did beat Bayern at home, but they were more consistent. We had a bad start because we lost our first game to Dinamo Zagreb, and after we had a hiccup at home to Olympiakos.
"What we need to do, to win the group stage, is to make a good result here tomorrow.
"Better than all my speeches is the way we play, and the dynamic we have, and the intensity we put into the games. We play in a championship when, if you look at the results over the weekend, it is very intense.
"We are used to playing with the intensity you need in the Champions League. Playing well is better than talking."
Laurent Koscielny, who suffered a "big knock on his face" at the weekend against Southampton, should be fit to play on Tuesday night, while Olivier Giroud is "close" to being ready.
Wenger described PSG as being "a good test" on the basis that they are "above everyone else in France," but Unai Emery's side have endured an uneven start to their Ligue 1 campaign. Expected to steamroll everyone in their domestic football, they have dropped points in their most recent two league games, losing to Monaco and drawing with St Etienne.
Asked what he needed to fix their results, Emery said "Time. But, in football, you don't have much time. I need confidence as well. Confidence is spread around between the players, spread within the squad.
"I'm very busy in my work, but I'm absolutely convinced we are going to improve. Tomorrow is the first opportunity to show that, after those two winless games, we can play well."
Wenger, and Emery, two men at different ends of their tenures with their clubs, both need a good start to kick off their Champions League campaigns and take a step towards improving their respective records. Tuesday represents the start of proving a point.