{"id":11172,"date":"2025-04-28T19:15:57","date_gmt":"2025-04-28T18:15:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=11172"},"modified":"2025-04-30T00:13:01","modified_gmt":"2025-04-29T23:13:01","slug":"gunners-to-triomphe-paris-defence-to-be-napoleon-blownapart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=11172","title":{"rendered":"Gunners To Triomphe – Paris Defence To Be Napoleon Blownapart!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 \ud83d\ude09).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Opposition – the early years<\/strong>
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 Ra\u00ed, 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 – <\/strong>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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Opposition – financially doped years<\/strong>
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, \u00c1ngel Di Mar\u00eda and, most notably, Neymar and Kylian Mbapp\u00e9, the world’s two most expensive transfers in football history. As a result, and to no-one\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While you can admire the success of the club\u2019s early years, 27 trophies in 13 years since being state funded, sounds no more like competition than Man City\u2019s 6 of the last 7 Premier League titles does in England.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019s 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\u2019t 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\u2019s hope it can come from the desire to show that the game can still be played and won fairly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mikel Arteta and PSG<\/strong>
It can\u2019t 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 \u201cterrified \u201c 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, \u201cdad\u201d and mentor Mauricio Pochettino. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“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.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clearly it was an experience he valued and he has reciprocated that trust in his own young players now at the Arsenal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The teams<\/strong>
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raya<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Timber, Saliba, Kiwior, MLS<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00d8degaard, Rice, Merino<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saka, Trossard, Martinelli<\/p>\n\n\n\n


In other news<\/strong>
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?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s 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 \u00d8degaard, followed by White and Saka, punctuated by Havertz, Calafiori and Jes\u00f9s and, just when you thought \u201cAt least the defence is ok\u201d, 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re 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\u2019re 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! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Please, football Gods, you owe us one !<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11172"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11172"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11172\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11183,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11172\/revisions\/11183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}