Arsenal have become something of a curiosity this season to the extent that it’s now easy to imagine they’ll be approaching a trip to Bayern Munich and an encounter with their old nemesis Harry Kane with something approaching relief.

Say what you like about having to take on Bayern Munich, even if they are on this occasion minus the suspended Michael Olise, but among the myriad problems one might encounter against them at least ‘unpicking a low block’ is unlikely to feature too highly.

For Arsenal, the freedom of playing against a team that will go toe-to-toe with them could come as a welcome change of pace, even if it is accompanied by obvious danger.

That obvious danger has already manifested this season. It is both obviously true that Arsenal should enjoy playing against a team that will approach them as equals far more than most of their recent matches, but also that the last time that happened Arsenal lost 3-0. And also that Arsenal have won all those other games that have appeared from the outside looking in to be such an unpleasant struggle.

But the final outcome doesn’t eliminate the struggle. Another curious thing about the struggles of a team that hasn’t scored a first-half goal in the Premier League or Champions League since the first weekend of September (against Chelsea…) is that it almost appears to be deliberate.

Arsenal’s first-half performances against teams as diverse as Aston Villa and Napoli and Sunderland and Lille and Nottingham Forest have had an almost petulant, sarcastic look to them. Oh, you’re going to defend in a low block and attempt to hit us on the counter, are you? Well then we shall play the game so very slowly and with such apparent uninterest in dismantling your carefully constructed defensive shapes that nothing will happen at all. Happy now?

Anyone who has ever, say, dealt with a teenager or had a job that, horrifically, involves working with colleagues, will recognise the signs of weaponised incompetence. Watching Arsenal seemingly barely even try and unlock packed first-half defences is very much like watching a sulking child very deliberately take eight calendar days to complete a dirty cereal bowl’s great journey from their bedroom to the dishwasher.

Time and again Arsenal have turned in these ponderous first-half efforts. Time and again they have improved enough in the second half to get the job done. Sometimes, as against Lille last week in this competition, that’s been completed ultimately quite impressively, perhaps with adroit use of substitutes, or Max Dowman and his as-yet undimmed sense of fun and joy, or just anyone that isn’t Viktor Gyokeres, bless him.

But sometimes the second half isn’t really that much better than the first and the whole thing remains a painful – if still so far successful – struggle until the very end.

Arsenal were painful to watch at Nottingham Forest at the weekend. To be clear, we don’t think they’re being deliberately sarcastic and difficult. We don’t think they’re deliberately responding to the sight of a well-set low-block by intentionally deciding to try and get round it in the slowest and least effective ways possible. We know that from the games where they do eventually turn it on, like Lille last week.

But it is truly maddening to watch at times, and must be infuriating to play. What, for instance, were Eberechi Eze’s instructions for that first half at Forest? It can’t have been to do what he did, which was for a player who was only a very short time ago one of the league’s most exciting attacking players for a club that didn’t have to come up against low-block syndrome 34 weeks out of 38 to display progressive intent at a homeopathic level.

Our big assumption here is that it’s as frustrating to play in as it is to watch. That Arsenal are having as little fun as everyone else. Maybe they like the misery, who knows. But surely… not really.

Surely they must want to actually play some proper games of football against opponents who treat them as equals? One could even mischievously wonder if some Arsenal players actually enjoyed the game – if not, obviously, the result – against Brighton more than most of their wins this season.

Brighton were absolutely brilliant that day, no doubt, but 3-0 was also an absurdity of a scoreline that didn’t truly reflect the balance of what was just a really high-quality football match. Arsenal were not quite at their best, and perhaps that makes sense. They have got out of the habit of playing in matches like that, and might reasonably have expected even a confident and fast-starting Brighton to play Arsenal the way almost everyone else plays Arsenal.

But on Wednesday night, Arsenal have, for one night only, something approaching actual freedom. Playing against a team that they know will play them as equals, who will try to play plenty of football themselves and inevitably thus allow Arsenal the chance to play plenty themselves in return.

And, best of all, unlike the relentless pressure that comes with the Premier League’s constant diet of what are for teams of Arsenal’s ambition must-win game after must-win game, this one’s an early Champions League league phase game that ultimately doesn’t even matter, as PSG have already proved two seasons running by cheerfully dominating the knockout stages after phoning it in and accepting whatever lowly qualifying position comes their way in the first phase.

So Arsenal have a rare release tonight. A game against opponents who will at least try and take them on, in a game where it’s almost impossible for the result to have any real season-defining importance even if people will try and pretend that it does.

These are, in short, conditions Arsenal haven’t actually faced since the Community Shield against Manchester City back in August. And look how that went.