Linus Pauling was one of the most brilliant scientists of the 20th century. He won two Nobel prizes and transformed our understanding of chemical bonds and the structure of proteins. Late in his career, though, he became famous for something very different: a passionate belief that very high doses of vitamin C could help people with cancer. Many doctors scoffed. When Pauling himself later died of cancer aged 93, he was held up as a classic case of the “halo effect”: being a genius in one field doesn’t guarantee wisdom in another.

Half a century on, the story looks more complicated. Pauling was wrong in important ways, but he was not entirely wrong. Modern research is giving vitamin C a second look in cancer, and it turns out that under certain conditions it can behave less like a gentle vitamin and more like a drug.

Pauling’s vitamin C story began in the 1970s, when he teamed up with the Scottish doctor Ewan Cameron and gave patients with advanced, incurable cancer very large amounts of vitamin C – first as a drip into a vein, then as tablets. Compared with similar patients who did not get vitamin C, they reported that the vitamin‑treated group lived longer and felt better. For some, they suggested, survival could be several times longer.

Two large trials, run by the Mayo Clinic, a leading non-profit medical centre in the US, then put this to the test. The results were clear: there was no benefit.

Patients who took vitamin C pills lived no longer than those who didn’t. For most oncologists, that was the end of the matter. Vitamin C was filed away with other “alternative” remedies, and Pauling’s late-career crusade was widely seen as a sad mistake.

What neither trial’s critics nor defenders noticed at the time: Pauling and Cameron had started with vitamin C into a vein; the Mayo Clinic trials used tablets only. That matters because the gut can only absorb so much vitamin C. Once you reach a modest daily dose, the body simply stops taking in much more. Swallow as many tablets as you like, and the level of vitamin C in your blood levels off.

By contrast, a drip into a vein can raise blood levels to tens or even hundreds of times higher than tablets ever could. At those extreme levels, vitamin C starts to behave differently inside the body.

At everyday levels, vitamin C acts as an antioxidant: it mops up harmful molecules and protects our cells. At very high levels, especially around tumours, it can flip roles.

In laboratory studies, high-dose vitamin C helps generate hydrogen peroxide, a reactive substance that can damage cells. Cancer cells seem especially vulnerable because they are already under stress. They grow rapidly, often in areas with poor blood supply, and produce lots of reactive molecules of their own. Their internal “cleanup” systems are stretched thin.

Add a sudden pulse of hydrogen peroxide and many cancer cells tip over the edge: their DNA and energy machinery are damaged and they die. Normal cells, which are under less strain and have better defences, are more likely to survive. In this way, very high doses of vitamin C behave less like a daily supplement and more like a weak, selective chemotherapy drug. Crucially, the doses needed for this effect cannot be reached with tablets.

What the latest evidence shows

In people, the evidence is still early and mixed. Small trials have given high-dose vitamin C through a vein to patients with hard-to-treat cancers such as ovarian, pancreatic or brain tumours. So far, many patients can receive large doses several times a week without serious side-effects. Problems can occur, especially in people with poor kidney function or rare inherited conditions, which is why this is not a harmless wellness drip to be sold on the high street.

A few studies suggest that adding vitamin C infusions to chemotherapy may help some patients live a little longer or help with side-effects, but other studies show no clear benefit. The trials are small and varied, so we cannot draw firm conclusions.

One consistent signal is quality of life: patients given vitamin C alongside chemotherapy often report less fatigue, less pain and fewer side-effects, such as nausea. For someone with advanced cancer, that matters, even if it is not the sweeping cure Pauling once promised.

Lab work also hints at subtler roles. Vitamin C is involved in enzymes that influence how our DNA is “marked” and read, and in how cells divide and respond to low oxygen – important in cancer behaviour.

In some experiments, high vitamin C levels make cancer cells grow less aggressively and make them more sensitive to treatment. There are even early suggestions that vitamin C may help the immune system recognise and attack tumours, though this remains speculative.

Partly right

So, was Pauling right after all? The fairest answer is that he was partly right, for reasons he did not fully understand, and he exaggerated the promise. He was wrong to promote vitamin C tablets as a powerful cure for cancer. Large, careful trials have not found that swallowing high-dose vitamin C helps people with established cancer live longer. He was also wrong to present vitamin C as a near-universal remedy for many illnesses.

But he was not entirely wrong to suspect that vitamin C might have a special role in cancer treatment. He sensed, long before we could prove it, that very high doses given into a vein would behave quite differently from ordinary supplements.

Modern research has confirmed that intravenous vitamin C reaches much higher levels in the blood and has distinct biological effects. What we do not yet have are large, definitive randomised trials showing that high-dose intravenous vitamin C clearly prolongs life for most cancer patients. Until we do, it should be seen as experimental – promising enough to study, but not proven enough to replace standard therapies. Any use belongs in clinical trials or in carefully supervised medical settings, not in clinics selling expensive “immune boosts”.

The “vitamins in cancer” story continues to evolve. If the story of vitamin C and cancer teaches us anything, it is that science rarely moves in straight lines. A bold idea, some flawed early studies, a fierce backlash – and then, years later, a quieter, more careful return to the question.

Pauling may never be fully vindicated, but neither was he simply deluded. In his enthusiasm, he may have glimpsed a sliver of truth long before the rest of us knew how to look for it.

Arthur’s symptoms were diagnosed as a virus, asthma or anxiety

A mum says a doctor dismissed her 10-year-old son’s sudden weight loss and struggle breathing as ‘anxiety’ – only for it to turn out to be cancer. Penny Saltmarsh took her ‘healthy and football mad’ son Arthur to see a doctor in January 2025 when he became breathless, but was told he just had a viral infection that would clear up.

When Arthur’s symptoms worsened as he began losing weight and ‘gasping for air’ during the school run, a week later, the 41-year-old took her child for an appointment twice more. When a doctor saw that Arthur struggled to make eye contact, Penny claims his sudden weight loss was diagnosed as ‘anxiety’, and she was told he was just an ‘anxious child’, with the doctor opting not to do an X-ray.

Days later the mum-of-six and her husband ‘panicked’ when they noticed one side of Arthur’s chest was four times bigger than the other so rushed him to hospital. In hospital an ultrasound revealed Arthur had a large build-up of fluid around his lungs causing them to collapse and his heart was under strain due to a mass on his thymus, a small gland in the chest.

Penny says it was a ‘nightmare’ to discover her child had T-cell lymphoblastic lymphoma in February 2025, which is a rare and fast-growing type of blood cancer. Arthur received four rounds of intensive chemotherapy between February and October 2025 and the mass in his chest has now gone but he will continue receiving treatment until June 2028.

A family member has set up a GoFundMe account to help support Arthur’s family, whose lives have completely changed since the diagnosis. The full-time carer says she is ‘grateful’ she trusted her gut as she claims a doctor said her son was just 48 hours away from death.

Now she urges other parents to ‘advocate’ for their child if they suspect something is wrong. Penny, who is from Cambridgeshire, said: “It happened in two or three weeks that he went from being healthy and fit to being two days away from dying.

“He started off with just becoming really breathless so even walking up the stairs he would stop halfway and just be struggling to catch his breath. That concerned us a little bit because prior to that he was the most fit, active, healthy football mad boy.

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“At this point I wasn’t too concerned but I took him to the GP. She said she thought it was viral and that ‘he’ll get better in about a week’.

“A week later he was getting worse and he’d also lost weight as well. He’s not one to enjoy going to bed but it got to 5.30pm and he’d be taking himself to bed and that definitely rang alarm bells because he’s never been like that ever.

“We took him back to the GP and I said ‘if it was viral he’d be getting better but we’ve noticed he’s losing weight, he’s out of breath so much and walking to school he’d have to stop gasping for air’. She said it could be asthma and sent us home with a peak flow kit and a diary. We did it for about a day but he couldn’t even blow the peak flow.

“They invited us on Saturday to a respiratory clinic to do an asthma check. The reading came back that it was very unlikely to be asthma. We took him home and a few days went past and we started to really worry at this point but I never in a million years thought about cancer.

“It’s just something you think happens to other people. You don’t ever think it’s going to be your child. We took him back to the GP and she said it was anxiety because he was not able to keep eye contact. Arthur can be a bit of an anxious child and has inattentive ADHD and autism. He’s really popular at school and is really good at fitting in but he doesn’t like to stand out from anybody.

“I also asked if we could do an X-ray or something because I felt like there was something going on with his chest. She said ‘no, I don’t want to send him for any X-rays because I don’t want to expose a child to any unnecessary radiation’.

“Me being trusting I just thought ‘okay, we’ve seen the GP quite a few times, we’ll just take him home and see how we get on’. [On] Sunday morning he came into our bedroom and you could see the level of effort he was having to do just to breathe.

“We started to panic at this point and his dad said ‘we’re taking him to hospital’ and he turned around and one side of his chest was four times the size of the other.”

In hospital an ultrasound revealed that over three litres of fluid had built up around Arthur’s lungs and an urgent CT scan showed the pressure had pushed his heart to the other side of his body. Doctors said it was too risky to put him under general anaesthetic so they were forced to sedate him to drain some of the fluid.

Penny said: “I honestly thought I was in a dream. I thought ‘this isn’t real life’, it was like a nightmare. It was really, really hard.

“In the beginning I was cross. He’s always been quite stoic so puts on the brave ‘I’m fine’. How do you tell your child they have cancer?”

Following four rounds of successful chemotherapy Arthur must now receive maintenance chemotherapy until June 2028 and Penny had to quit being a student midwife to care for her son. Penny said: “He’s been through a lot and is so tough. The lasting mental impact that it’s had is what we’re struggling with now.

“He’s missed a year of school and he just wants to be like everybody else at his school. Just getting him back to being Arthur before all of this has been a real challenge.”

She added: “If you feel in your gut that you’re not happy or if you have alarm bells going off in your head you push. That’s your child and you’re there to advocate for them.”

You can donate to Penny Saltmarsh’s fundraiser here https://www.gofundme.com/f/pkcjm-support-arthur-through-his-cancer-journey

The Only Way Is Essex cast member was found dead at a holiday villa in Majorca with head injuries, as reported by The Sun.

He appeared on the show in 2015, and he ran his menswear brand, By Jake Hall.

According to the newspaper, a spokesperson for the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office said: “We are supporting the family of a British man who has died in Spain and are in contact with the local authorities.”

Hall has a daughter, River, eight, with Real Housewives of Cheshire star Misse Beqiri.

Celebrity DJ Fat Tony paid tribute to him on Instagram, writing: “Devastating news we Love you @jakehall such an awful loss to the world you beautiful man x.”

Roxie Nafousi commented on Jake’s instagram post: “Jake 🙁 you were such a sweet soul, I always loved our catch ups.

“I know things weren’t always easy for you but you never gave up and you really loved your little girl more than anything in the world.

“This is so devastating.

“Keep dancing up in heaven. Rest in peace”

Hall’s most recent Instagram post showed him painting in Majorca.

Along with the photo, he said: “Life is b******s sometimes but I’m gonna try remember the good things.

“Looking through things – I’m just making art – in many forms.”

Savannah Guthrie returned to the Today show Thursday morning after abruptly leaving Wednesday’s broadcast without explanation.

Guthrie left 90 minutes into the morning show’s May 6 broadcast, with her co-anchor Craig Melvin telling viewers: “Savannah had to leave a little early. She’ll be right back tomorrow, though.”

Guthrie was indeed back Thursday morning alongside Willie Geist and did not explain the reason for her sudden departure the day before.

The Independent has contacted NBC and Guthrie’s representatives for comments.

It comes as Guthrie’s 84-year-old mother has been missing for three months after a suspected abduction from her home near Tucson, Arizona.

Savannah, 54, returned to Today in April following a two-month hiatus, during which she spent time with her family and sent pleas to the public for any information regarding her mother’s disappearance.

In February, the FBI released pictures of a masked and armed person outside of Nancy’s home the night she went missing. No suspect has been identified.

Guthrie sat down for her first interview since her mother’s disappearance with Hoda Kotb in a segment that aired last month.

“I don’t know that it’s because she’s my mom and somebody thought, ‘Oh, that lady has money and we can make a quick buck.’ I mean, that would make sense,” she said in the emotional footage. “But we don’t know … which is too much to bear, to think that I brought this to her bedside.”

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Stacey Balfour was jailed for 16 years following the murder of Robert Fisher at a tower block in Paisley in July 2023.

The mum of a man who was stabbed to death in a Paisley flat has pleaded that her son’s killer is not released early before the “monster” appears in front of appeal judges today.

Cameron Woods and Stacey Balfour, then 27 and 24, were sentenced at the High Court in Glasgow on June 24 last year following the slaying of Robert Fisher. The 26-year-old was brutally killed at a block of flats in Maxwellton Street in July 2023.

The pair had denied murder at trial but were eventually convicted. Woods was jailed for a minimum 18-and-a-half years with Balfour locked up for 16 years.

However, Balfour has now launched an appeal against her sentence and is due to appear in front of appeal judges in Edinburgh today. Robert’s mum, Pamela Peacock, has publicly slammed Woods’ vile former girlfriend and pleaded with lawmakers not to “let this monster out early”.

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Posting on social media, she said: “People need to know what she is doing to us as a family. The cheek of her.

“Please believe me, she was just as much involved in Robert’s murder as Cameron Woods was.

“I sat everyday throughout the trial and this is a monster! I had to hear what happened to my son Robert and I can honestly say that he certainly did not deserve to die the way he did.

“Hopefully the judges see right through this monster, because that’s what her and her boyfriend are, monsters. The way they left my son has scarred me for the rest of my life.

“Please can everyone think about Robert on this day and please let justice be done and this monster does not walk free.”

During the trial, the court heard how it was Woods who knifed Robert with his then partner Balfour “acting in concert” knowing there would be violence. The killing took place after all three had been with others at a flat at the tower block.

A witness stated they had seen Woods wielding a large kitchen knife at one stage. Balfour was meantime seen showing someone the small lockback blade later used in the killing which had been attached to a set of keys.

It was heard that the atmosphere between those at the flat, including Robert, became volatile. This eventually led to the young dad being stabbed “in what amounted to a murderous attack”.

Robert managed to stagger out of the flat covered in blood after suffering five separate stab wounds as well as possible defensive injuries. The victim was hard groaning, “I have been stabbed”, as 999 was dialled.

He died four days later in the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow. The murder weapon, which had Robert’s blood on it, was later found with Woods when he was stopped by police at a cycle track.

Balfour had initially told officers that the last time she had seen Mr Fisher was when he left the flat with another man. Her KC Thomas Ross said she had previously suffered a “traumatic” incident in 2014 and a had been in a “toxic relationship” before the murder.

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She was seen ditching the UK with her eldest sons after being invited on a mega trip with a number of other famous faces

Stacey Solomon has told fans it ‘doesn’t feel real’ as she was seen ditching the UK with her eldest sons after being invited on a mega trip with a number of other famous faces.

As those who have followed the Loose Women star’s life and career, she shares three children with her husband Joe Swash – Rex, Rose and Belle – as well as being a proud mum to teenagers Zachary and Leighton from previous relationships.

Earlier this week, Stacey was seen sharing more family updates as she marked her second-oldest child’s 14th birthday. Alongside a picture of the birthday boy posing alongside a cake and his birthday gifts, she wrote on her Instagram Story: “He doesn’t like a big fuss, and he hates pictures, so this is a rare one he likes and it’s Arsenal and a takeaway for our 14-year-old incredible little man.

“We love you to the moon and back Leighton! You are literally sunshine. We are never not laughing when you’re around. Happy Birthday Leight [heart emoji].” She then shared a video of the celebrations taking place and said: “BEST BIRTHDAY EVER. Leighton is so happy and so is the whole family tbh [crying face emoji]. Well done Arsenal [heart emoji].”

It was then on Wednesday (May 6) that the Sort Your Life Out host confirmed that she, Zachary and Leighton were headed for Miami after she was invited to join a huge brand trip put together by Space NK and also being attended by the likes of Rochelle and Marvin Humes, Olivia Attwood and influencer Perrie Sian.

Alongside a picture of herself and her sons at the airport, Stacey told her millions of followers: “The next few days are going to be magic. I was invited on the most incredible trip thanks to Jinny & the @spacenk team. I’m so lucky to have been asked & im so grateful.

“It genuinely doesn’t feel real! Ill never take this for granted it’s just not real! I decided to book Zach & Leighton to come out with me because, with the little pickles, we don’t get to hang out just us a lot, & I miss them. So I’m so excited to spend some special time with my big boys & some amazing people in MIAMI! I mean WHAT IN THE WORLD.”

She added: “Here we go boys [crying face emoji]. I’ll bring you all with me. Thank you all for supporting me which is the only reason I even get asked on these type of incredible things. I’m so grateful for you guys [face holding back tears and heart emojis].”

A British hantavirus patient who is isolating in hospital after being dramatically rescued from the cruise ship at the centre of the outbreak has said he is “doing okay”, but still needs more tests.

Martin Anstee, 56, was an expedition guide on board the MV Hondius, the vessel that has been hit by the pathogen that is carried by rodents.

The former police officer is currently at a hospital in the Netherlands and told Sky News he has “no idea how long I’ll be in hospital for.”

“I’m in isolation at the moment,” he added.

However, he did not say what symptoms he was experiencing and hopes to “have a clearer picture” later this week.

The virus is typically spread by rodents through their droppings, saliva and urine, but in rare cases this particular strain, the Andean strain, can spread between humans.

Professor Robin May, chief scientific officer at the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), said it was a “good sign” the British man being treated in the Netherlands was able to communicate with family.

He told BBC Breakfast: “He is going to be under investigation for some time, obviously, but I’m very pleased that he’s now in hospital and receiving the treatment he needs.”

Three people have so far died and the number of confirmed hantavirus cases has now risen to five, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said.

The UKHSA said people may need to isolate for up to eight weeks, but reassured the risk to the public “remains very low”.

Two people who were on board the ship and returned to the UK are self isolating, but are not showing any symptoms, according to UKHSA. Another Briton is in hospital in South Africa.

“There are two UK nationals who left the cruise earlier, as often happens on cruises of course, people join for parts of it. Before this outbreak was detected, they returned back to the UK,” Prof May added.

“But obviously there’s a chance they may have been exposed to the virus. So we have been in contact with them. They have agreed very kindly to self-isolate for the next period of time.

“We’re working very closely with them to monitor them, obviously, and to support them and their families until we know they have the all clear. And actually, that’s the process we’ll be using when the other British nationals on board return home, hopefully in a couple of days’ time too.”

A couple’s bird watching trip while in Argentina may explain how the virus got onto the ship, officials investigating the outbreak said. The pair may have been exposed to infected rodents while birdwatching at a landfill site in Ushuaia.

Ulysses, a mild but disillusioned police officer, arrives in icy Minnesota to start an eight-week stint as substitute sheriff in the surprisingly prosperous small town of Normal. The previous sheriff has died in mysterious circumstances.

As he recovers from a traumatic episode in his own career, his aim is to serve out his time as quietly and uneventfully as possible and then leave the town pretty much as he found it. Unsurprisingly, events swiftly take a very different, not to mention ultra-violent, turn.

The snowbound setting, quirky but amiable inhabitants and swift intimations of a darker criminal hinterland all give off unmistakable Fargo vibes. Not least because the sheriff is played by Bob Odenkirk, an alumnus of Noah Hawley’s TV spin-off of the Coen Brothers’ classic 1996 picture. (In an obvious nod, Ulysses’ deceased predecessor, Gunderson, shares his surname with Frances McDormand’s cop in the film.)

The silent apparitions of the town’s near-legendary moose and much discussion of coffee also lend these sequences a certain Twin Peaks (1990-1991) flavour. Later on a severed ear is an obvious shout-out to another David Lynch project, Blue Velvet (1986).

Midway through director Ben Wheatley’s new thriller, however, the stylistic reference points shift from the Coens and Lynch to Quentin Tarantino and John Carpenter. A farcically botched Bonnie and Clyde-style bank heist hurls the film into a spiral of chaotic and very bloody violence which barely lets up for the remainder of the film.

The townsfolk, it transpires, have saved Normal from the blighted fate of other midwestern towns by striking an improbable Faustian bargain to warehouse piles of loot for the Japanese mob – the Yakuza.

Big body count

Once Ulysses stumbles across this dirty little secret, he finds himself pitted against virtually every single inhabitant of Normal as they battle to keep it quiet. An arsenal of guns, explosives, light artillery and a variety of improvised weapons overnight reduce the town’s main street into a blood-soaked, body-strewn wreckage.

Ulysses, along with the hapless pair of amateur bank robbers caught up in the crossfire, fights off hordes of opponents in the fashion of Tarantino’s From Dusk To Dawn (1996). And once the black-suited Yakuza reinforcements arrive, it resembles Kill Bill (2004). The gory violence, mostly played for blackly comic effect, has a comparably weightless feel.

The army of townsfolk stalking the beleaguered, outgunned trio recalls the zombie-like gang in John Carpenter’s B-movie classic Assault on Precinct 13 (1976). Or perhaps even more the demented small-town denizens of George A. Romero’s The Crazies (1973).

As this string of allusions might suggest, Normal makes no great claims on originality. Written by Derek Kolstad, creator of the John Wick franchise – and also 2021’s Nobody, the vehicle for Odenkirk’s late-career swerve into action hero – the film delivers on its simple premise without any great care for complex plotting or plausibility. It serves up modestly inventive pyrotechnics in a businesslike, and at just 90 minutes, very concise fashion.

Fans of Wheatley’s previous efforts in this vein will enjoy his trademark, though not especially unique, combination of humour and extreme violence. Others may feel he does himself few favours with the constant overt nods to far superior filmmakers and risks making his film feel even more derivative and predictable than it confesses itself to be.

There’s certainly little here in the rendering of upstate Minnesota to compare with Roger Deakins’ crystalline cinematography in Fargo. Nor can Wheatley’s energetic but prosaic action choreography ever approach the stylisation of Kill Bill.

Violence aside, then, the film rests heavily on some apt casting and happily the performers are reliably engaging. Odenkirk’s trademark battered decency largely carries the film. But there are also deft supporting turns, notably from Henry Winkler as Normal’s oleaginous mayor and Lena Headey as a tough-dame barkeep. Reena Jolly and Peter Shinkoda are also endearing as the dishevelled slacker bandits (and solicitous dog parents). They vaguely recall the shambolic outlaws of One Battle After Another (2025).

Many of Normal’s influences have serious things to say about modern American life. Normal too gestures in passing to larger issues. The mayor presents the community’s turn to crime as a morally if not legally legitimate reaction to the desperate plight of “flyover states” devastated by industrial decline and corporate predation.

But really this is just window dressing. There isn’t a great deal more to the film than meets the eye, and there probably doesn’t need to be. In its rapid pacing, terse characterisation, brief run time and propulsive, hard-boiled action, Normal positions itself as a latter-day B-movie and mostly delivers on the unpretentious pleasures of that time-honoured form.

A 45-year-old man was pronounced dead at the scene

A man has died in a crash involving a car and a lorry in Peterborough yesterday (Wednesday, May 6). Cambridgeshire Police were called to the eastbound carriageway of the A1139 Fletton Parkway at around 11.50am.

The collision involved an HGV and a white Xpeng G6 and happened near the exit from the A1(M). Police, paramedics and fire crews attended the scene and the road was closed for around five hours.

The driver of the car, a 45-year-old man from Peterborough, died at the scene. Officers are now appealing for anyone with information about the crash to come forward.

Anyone who saw the crash or has dashcam footage of the collision or the vehicles leading up to the incident should contact the police. You can report any information through the Cambridgeshire Police website quoting Operation Braddock. You can also call 101 if you do not have access to the internet.

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Arsenal, if you listen to some at the club, may now have their chance at “revenge”. They felt they were actually better than Paris Saint-Germain in last season’s semi-final, which may still baffle many people who’ve watched the Qatari project since.

The rest of Europe might just want a better crescendo than the semi-final ultimately offered, and perhaps that the Champions League final has been due for some time. There hasn’t been a great final in years, arguably since 2005, despite claims from 2008, 2012 and 2017.

That has meant the semi-finals have often represented the absolute peak of club football, even if this year’s didn’t reach the heights that had been anticipated.

It’s not an exaggeration to say that the expectation after the Bayern Munich-PSG first leg was that we would all be sitting here on Thursday morning trying to make sense of another sensation.

That didn’t really happen. PSG were just too good. This time, Bayern just couldn’t get close enough when it mattered.

That poses another question, relevant to Arsenal’s lingering frustration from last season, relevant to where European football goes next.

If PSG put in a very modern display of excellence in the first leg, the second leg was a more classically continental display.

They shut Bayern out, where they had previously opened them. There were no concerns about defending here.

It further fosters the sense of a truly complete team, arguably the best that Europe has seen since Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona when performing at their top level.

There are of course caveats. PSG benefit from all of the advantages of being a Qatari sportswashing project, at the same time that power has trampled Ligue 1.

The new darlings of the competition do bring darker discussions.

PSG would not just become the first side since Real Madrid in 2018 to retain the trophy, and just the second in the Champions League era.

They would ensure a state-owned club has won the competition for the third time in four years, a development that would be all the more conspicuous when the conflict in Iran has raised questions about future strategies from such Gulf autocracies. There’s an extra layer to this, given that Viktor Orban – characterised as “a competitive authoritarian” – is no longer the premier of Hungary, having been voted out weeks before this prestige fixture in Budapest he had long desired.

Such concerns, as has been said before, reflect a lot about football in 2026.

Arsenal, themselves owned by a classic US billionaire capitalist, find both of these state-owned clubs – PSG and Manchester City – standing in their way in the season’s two major trophies.

If Mikel Arteta’s side were to win the league, it would make this final the first meeting between domestic champions since 2020.

That prospect does speak to something else about this final. It might end up a rare final that is definitively between the best teams in Europe. That arguably hasn’t been seen since 2020 either, and before that you probably have to go back to 2014 or 2009.

There’s even the symmetry of how Arsenal were undeniably the best team of the first half of the season, given how they finished top of the group stage, and PSG again the best team of the second half and the knock-outs.

The most pertinent question, however, is whether Arsenal can really be as good as PSG for the final – or whether they even need to be.

The football both sides play also plays into many other contrasts.

While PSG are self-assuredly looking to perpetuate their dominance and win a second Champions League, Arsenal are striving to finally claim their first, and properly begin their own era.

Duly, Luis Enrique’s side constantly look like they are expanding the pitch, while Arsenal play within the margins.

That contrast from the two semi-finals is set to become even more acute.

Stellar attack against collective structure; imagination against order.

The reality of it is unlikely to be quite so simple, as Enrique would himself warn.

After the entire European season seemed to be going the same way as a coruscating Kvicha Kvaratshkelia run – surely a contender for Ballon d’Or – how susceptible are PSG to one Gabriel Magalhaes set-piece header settling it?

Or, after a season when Arteta’s side constantly played on the line, will PSG blow them off it?

Or is this already a new Arsenal, elevated to the Champions League final and consequently having had a weight lifted?

The temptation will be to cast this as some kind of battle for the soul of football given the contrasting styles, but the wider context makes it a lot more complicated than that.

In the most immediate and simple sense, it is an enticing match between arguably Europe’s two best sides.

The hope is it leads to the final the competition has long been due.