And so, while we have recently perhaps struggled to maintain concentration and second place in the Premier League, Tuesday evening sees us switch to what has become our number one priority for this most difficult of seasons, the Champions League.
Given our injury problems this season we have done quite brilliantly to win a place in the semifinals where we will get an eyeful of Paris St Germain (see what I did there 😉).
The Opposition – the early years
Considering their, albeit more recent, domination of French football, it might come as something of a surprise to find that Paris Saint-Germain Football Club was founded as recently as August 1970 after the merger of Paris Football Club and Stade Saint-Germain. PSG made an immediate impact, winning promotion to Division 1 via the Division 2 title in their first season.
That initial success was short lived however, and the club split again in 1972. Paris FC remained in the top division while PSG were administratively relegated to Division 3. Success returned quickly though, and, following back to back promotions, PSG returned to the premier division in 1974 and moved into the Parc des Princes stadium.
Their first trophies arrived in the 1980s. Led by players such as Safet Susic, Luis Fernandez and Dominique Rocheteau, the Parisians claimed two consecutive French Cups in 1982 and 1983, followed by their first league championship in 1986, after which they went into decline. A takeover by French television giants Canal+ in 1991 breathed new life into the club and with new players like David Ginola, George Weah and Raí, the club won nine trophies and reached five consecutive European semifinals during that decade. Most notably, PSG won a second league title in 1994 and, at their peak, the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup in 1996 with ex-player and club legend Luis Fernandez now as coach.
From the start of the 2000s the club struggled to reproduce those heights despite the presence of players like Ronaldinho and the goals of the Portuguese, Pedro Miguel Carreiro Resendes – Pauleta to you and me. Five more trophies did arrive in the form of three French Cups, one French League Cup and one UEFA Intertoto Cup, but the club became better known for lurching from one high-profile crisis to another. As a result, Canal+ sold the club to Colony Capital in 2006. However, the situation only worsened and they spent the 2006-07 and 2007-08 campaigns fighting off relegation.
The Opposition – financially doped years
The fortunes of Paris Saint-Germain changed dramatically when Qatar Sports Investments (QSI) purchased the club in 2011. Since then, like other oil-state funded clubs, PSG have spent heavily on the signings of world-class players such as Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Thiago Silva, Edinson Cavani, Ángel Di María and, most notably, Neymar and Kylian Mbappé, the world’s two most expensive transfers in football history. As a result, and to no-one’s surprise, PSG have dominated French football, winning 27 trophies: 7 league titles, 6 French Cups, 6 French League Cups and 8 French Super Cups. They have also become a regular in the knockout stages of the Champions League, reaching the final for the first time ever in 2020.
While you can admire the success of the club’s early years, 27 trophies in 13 years since being state funded, sounds no more like competition than Man City’s 6 of the last 7 Premier League titles does in England.
While we continue to await the outcome of the court hearings into somewhere between 115 and 130 charges of cheating by Manchester City, I have no idea of the legality or otherwise of QSI’s dealings, but having written a long piece about Qatar and their motivations and behaviour whilst hosting the 2022 World Cup, there is no doubt that I wouldn’t want them owning our club. Thousands of migrant workers died during the construction of stadia for that event, having been forced to stay until completion in dreadful living conditions. Thousands more eventually returned home with chronic illnesses caused by long term dehydration during their enforced stays. If any extra motivation were needed to beat PSG, let’s hope it can come from the desire to show that the game can still be played and won fairly.
Mikel Arteta and PSG
It can’t be forgotten that Mikel Arteta began his own senior professional career with the original version of PSG. It all happened very suddenly for Arteta when the La Masia academy at Barcelona received a phone call from PSG asking to take the 18 year old on loan. Arteta said he was “terrified “ but knew it was an opportunity he had to take. He says the two years he spent there were the making of him, with his fellow player, “dad” and mentor Mauricio Pochettino.
“Luis Fernandez was the one who believed in me. That is what you need, someone to give you the chance and to be surrounded by the right individuals. They protected me like a son. It was the perfect environment for me to see what I was capable of doing.”
Clearly it was an experience he valued and he has reciprocated that trust in his own young players now at the Arsenal.
The teams
PSG’s tactical shape is highly flexible, often starting with a 4-3-3 formation in possession but that is rarely how the team ends up. PSG and Luis Enrique are massive disciples of the 3-2-5, so the 4-3-3 will convert very quickly into wide players pushing on, a centre forward going forwards, two midfielders joining in and a full back inverting to make a 3-2-5 shape.
They will commit wide men forwards and right out on the lines and try constantly to maintain their width. They are not afraid to be direct – they will switch play a lot and try to target those wingers in behind. We will probably – hopefully – see Miles Lewis-Skelly inverting far less than usual, if at all, as a result.
For Arsenal, the gaps to attack will be high and wide when PSG become more narrow at the back. Not a bad option where we have the various attacking skills of Saka and Martinelli backed up by Timber and Lewis-Skelly. Aston Villa showed that PSG can be got at, and they did lose 1-3 at home to Nice at the weekend. According to reports, they completely dominated the opposition, had an Xg of almost 4.0 but failed to score – something they have done several times this season.
PSG have no injury worries and, thanks to their dominance at the top of Ligue 1, have been able to regularly rotate players to ensure they all stayed fit. Whoopee-doo for them.
Arsenal, on the other hand, have a major problem to solve due in large part to the stupid suspension picked up by Thomas Partey in the very last knockings of the game in Madrid. Declan Rice’s reaction was clear for all to see. That has been further complicated by a worry over Mikel Merino who was not available for the match against Crystal Palace last week. There is, however, a possibility that he, Ben White and Calafiori could be fit according to Mikel Arteta in the London Evening Standard.
If fit, Mikel Merino will drop back into midfield alongside Declan Rice, presumably with Trossard playing as a false 9 after a couple of successful auditions in recent matches. The possibilities and permutations are both many and yet strangely almost non-existent with Jorginho also ruled out with his rib injury.
Rather than debate them at length here – we will all know more by the time this is published anyway – I will put down the team I would like to see and hope for the best:
Raya
Timber, Saliba, Kiwior, MLS
Ødegaard, Rice, Merino
Saka, Trossard, Martinelli
In other news
Slovenian official Slavko Vincic will referee, assisted by Tomaz Klancnik and Andraz Kovacic. Matej Jug will be the fourth official. Alen Borosak will be the VAR, assisted by Dennis Higler of the Netherlands, making him the only member of the team not from Slovenia. A hint of independence, perhaps?
Vincic is the referee who took control of our meeting with PSG earlier in the season – and our semi final second leg tie with Villarreal in 2021 so we are unbeaten when he has been on the whistle!
It’s hard to imagine how the football Gods could possibly have conjured up a more difficult, frustrating season for us this time around. The team has been torn apart by one long term injury after another, starting with Ødegaard, followed by White and Saka, punctuated by Havertz, Calafiori and Jesùs and, just when you thought “At least the defence is ok”, out went Gabriel for the last couple of months. In fairness, Kiwior has stepped up brilliantly to the point where Gabriel has hardly been missed.
We’re still there though – somehow, despite it all, second in the league and 180 minutes from our first Champions League final for 19 years. If you’re lucky enough to be going, sing, shout and roar the lads on for one more titanic effort to put the onion wearing, garlic munching, Perrier slurping surrender monkeys in their place! Sorry, Ollie!
Please, football Gods, you owe us one !
An excellent review of their history and a stirring call to arms for tomorrow night. I anticipate the bar at Block 10 will be rocking pre match. Ooe mire push, boys. COYG.
A very comprehensive and stirring preview Trev. We are very much in the big time . I couldn’t believe how we swatted aside Real Madrid- can we do the same to PSG ? It will be harder because they are a better side but we coped very well with them back in the group stage .
I have a feeling that we will see a double Champions League final – we will play Barca in both . Tomorrow will be a vital day but I hope we can come out with a two goal lead . Merino may be our ace card
A towering review of Paris St Germain, Trev (see what I did there? :)).
PSG will be a lot tougher opponent than Real Madrid. Their attack is fast and fearsome, and, unlike Madrid’s, functioning, but as you point out, they can be defensively vulnerable. It will be a night for being clinical with our chances.
Thanks Trev, an excellent preview and a calling out of PSG for what they are.
I have watched them a few times now and can’t see any reason we can’t take
them out over two legs.
Trev’s XI looks likely but i wonder if MA will prefer to put in at least one
surprise choice.
A top, top preview, Trev. I prefer to call them QSG, a moniker I pinched from Ollie. I sincerely hope that we can put them to the sword but everyone will have to bring his A-game. If we can play to our full potential, attack them with energy from kick-off and take our chances there’s no reason we can’t win this semi-final tie. We certainly want to take a comfortable lead to Paris. COYG.
Thanks Trev for a great preview complete with great title and great prediction. Triomphe s’il vous plait pour l’Arsenal.
Cheers Trev. Excellent preview.
They are looking a really good side right now. Luis Enrique is one of the best coaches in the world and his team have improved massively the more they’ve understood how he wants them to play. This should be a very good level football match.
Joao Neves (wonderful player) gave an interview to The Athletic and he said that he thinks PSG may be a little better with the ball but Arsenal may he a little more physically strong. Probably a fair assessment but i think it highlights the importance of Odegaard tonight. He always works his socks off, but if he shrugs of his recent relatively indifferent form and threads the passes he is capable of then that will make it seriously tough for PSG.
So much at stake tonight, whatever happens I hope we go out there and do ourselves justice. We’re a great side and we need to show it.
UTA!
Slightly different topic but relating to the game as Partey’s suspension means we’d likely play Jorginho if he were available.
It’s kinda flown under the radar, but the move that lead to Jorginho’s rib injury was one of those where a player (Mbeumo?) waits until an opponent is in the air and then backs into them so they can’t land safely.
It’s considered too dangerous to be allowed in rugby. Football is so far behind the curve on this, and even after it caused a damaging injury at a vital time of the season it is completely unremarked upon. I’ve seen nothing anywhere about what a dangerous challenge it was and I don’t think the ref even gave it as a foul. In rugby, the VAR would’ve sent him off for it.
Football needs to change.
Thank you, fellas !
GSD – making a back is an old bugbear of mine. I’ve commented on it several times in this bar. Harry Kane made a habit of doing it. Referees don’t even seem to spot it. It is extremely dangerous. Jorginho damaged a rib. It could have been his neck / spine. He was lucky.
Trev, you calling it out was probably the reason I started noticing it so distinctly. Pity no-one in the media does!
From my mate, The Chinaman…
My pre-match thoughts…
As Arsenal prepares to face PSG tonight, it’s not just another Champions League clash. It’s a battle of footballing identities. On one side, Arsenal, a club steeped in history, tradition, born from workers, grown through integrity, oozing class, committed to the beautiful game and immortalised by greatness. On the other, PSG, a franchise built in 1970, bought and bloated by Qatari oil money, functioning as a soft-power tool for a regime drowning in human rights abuses.
PSG is football’s Louis Vuitton handbag, expensive and flashy but fundamentally empty. A club that didn’t exist in any meaningful way until Qatar turned it into a sportswashing project with a billion-petrodollar bow on top. Let’s not forget, for all the glitz, they’ve never beaten Arsenal. Not once. History doesn’t bow to money. It buries it.
Then there’s Ligue 1, a glorified playground, a monopoly dressed as a competition, so thin on quality, it’s called the Farmer’s League. Domestic domination means nothing when it comes gift-wrapped every season.
For the integrity of the game, this semi-final is one that Arsenal must win. Because Arsenal means something, Arsenal is a club built, not bought. Arsenal represents a football culture built on philosophy, not financial fiction.
So, when the whistle blows at 8 pm. It’s not just a game. It’s a statement. #Believe!
Excellent preview Trev, thank you! I share your — and Bath’s and others — your disdain for the artificially manufactured entity that is the current incarnation of our semi-final opponent. Just like the modern version of their Manchester counterparts — albeit different players, but the same playbook — this “club” willMustNeedHaveTo win the CL, and I think this year the coach and players probably feel more of a conviction about their ability to do so.
That said, they haven’t been to a CL final yet. And despite their much discussed positive evolution since the autumn of last year, the 2-0 loss at Emirates in October will be in their memory, and if we can assert ourselves at the early stages, and the (hopefully) energized and raucous home support cheers every tackle and every bit of dominance on the ball, the fluidity of their game, which depends so much on their belief in each other, will come under the kind of stress they never really experience in Ligue 1. And while they had indeed outplayed and overcome two other PL clubs in the last two rounds, I think we are, on our day, overall a better team than either of those two (I understand that sounds scandalizing given that one of them already own the PL this season).
I think your team selection is the likeliest. Though I wonder if Arteta might be tempted to keep Merino in the central striker position and start MLS on the left-midfield role, with KT as a non-inverting old school left-back to deal more with their in-form, flank switching wingers. A fully fit Tierney is as capable a left back as any, and that will also allow Martinelli to better exploit the space left open by their right back. Tierney also has a mean whipping cross that Merino — rather good at headers — can attack. Some kind of tactical surprises may work in favor more at home.
As others said, the bare minimum of the first leg is to keep the tie alive for the second leg. The best outcome will of course be if we can take a substantial lead to Paris. As we had managed to do it against Madrid, a club of unrivaled CL history and aura, there is no reason to doubt our abilities to repeat that against the (not really) Parisians.
Come on Arsenal!
Wot the Chinaman said at 11, and thank you for the link, CER. 🥇
Thanks Dr. F for an excellent drink @12. COYG
If ever there was a season when the football gods owe us one is indeed this one. Excellent preview, Trev.
Just win (and in doing so, entertain at the level of the Madrid game).
Excellent drink Dr F.
I notice that the likely PSG starting eleven will be similar to the one they used in the group stage. Trossard played very well in a deeper role and I think he and Merino will alternate in midfield/ false 9 positions . MLS was a late sub then but I do remember Saka tearing Mendes a new one in the way that Mo Salah didn’t for Liverpool . Odegaard wasn’t available in the group game . How we use Rice and MLS will be very important .
Kiwior played 45 minutes at left back for Timber in the group match .
So much will hinge on whether we can unsettle PSG as we did Real Madrid and the crowd will have a huge role to play .
Pre match nerves are really kicking in. Last night I dreampt we lost 2 nil to Villareal so was pleased when I woke up.
I can see a narrow loss tonight but we take the tie over there.
Cheers Trev, great preview and puns to match. I expect you’ve nailed it with the team selection. Champions league success has been long overdue for our club, MA8 has got us very close now so Let’s Do Dis.
COYRRR
The team is as expected and it seems AW is in the house too for this one.
I feel in my heart that he despises PSG just like the rest of us.
I fancy Saka to step up on the big occasion and win it for us tonight.
Nothing to disagree with above. I think Martinelli has a part to play in this.
Dembele wandered through the midfield and then found himself unmarked to receive the pass and shoot. All a bit too easy in the 5th minute.
I guess Thomas Partey would have stopped that run.
That was a bit sobering. PSG should’ve finished the tie off but we are still in it. Have to play a lot better than that though in Paris.
We hauled ourselves back from the brink of disaster. Not all the way back, but far enough to still be in the game. I hope the second half of SP’s premonition @14 is fulfilled as the first half has been.
PSG played quite well. Good technical level. We weren’t at our best, looked very nervous in the early stages. Grew into the game toward the end of the first half. That early (non) goal in the second half could easily have been a real game changer but its cancellation let PSG off the hook. I wasn’t surprised by the offside decision, we’d had several players in offside positions for earlier set pieces. Need to do better than that, fellas.
I think we can win it in Paris. Without Partey, Declan had to lie deeper and Merino had to drop into midfield. Both of these changes weakened our play substantially and resulted in too many sideways/backwards passes. That can be rectified in Paris and there’s no question that both Saka and Odegaard can do much, much better than they did tonight.
Good night all, bent but not broken, I’m off to bed, early tee time tomorrow.
NLFE
I would have brought Ethan on earlier. Martin O has been off his game for so long now I’m wondering which is the real version.
Partey was missed, especially in the first 20 minutes. Having to play Rice as a 6 loses everything he brings higher up the pitch as an 8. Merino would then have played at the false 9, which would have blunted PSG’s midfield overloads early on, as he plays deeper than Trossard.
Is it heresy to say it, MØ8 doesn’t start in this team on form?
We missed Partey, especially in the first 20 minutes. Having to play Rice as a 6 loses us everything he brings higher up the pitch as an 8. Merino could then have played the false 9, rather than Trossard. As he tends to drop deeper than Trossard, that would have helped negate the midfield overloads that PSG had early on.
Is it heresy to say it, MØ8 doesn’t start in this team on form?
Yeah, agree BtM, all is certainly not lost and Partey will
be a big boost at his best.
I agree with every word BtM @24. Nothing much to add. It’s all still to play for.
Btm @ 24 sums up feelings as well. They are a good side but are gettable. If Mikel makes
the right team choices next week it’s feasible we can turn this around. The referee seemed to be auditioning for PGMOL employment next season – let’s hope we get one at the standard of previous levels with seen previously.
>>>>>>>