The Arsenal setting was set to deliver the famous Emirates night. As Mikel Arteta’s side came to fight Paris Saint-Germain, he had a deflate performance, so reality was ultimately far from that.
The nature of the quarterfinals in the win over Real Madrid met Arsenal with hope and confidence that they had found another gear after the season threatened to burn. History was already made and they wanted more.
The Emirates were the cauldron of noise in the club’s 16-year semi-final accumulation leading up to the club’s first Champions League semi-finals, and fans were as loud as the stadium knew. Ousmane Dembele’s four-minute strike quickly cut all of that.
Arsenal fans recovered after that brief, surprising silence, but the stadium wanted more. Leandro Trossard and Gabriel Martinelli had the chance, and a save from Gianluigi Donnarumma, but Arsenal didn’t do enough in the end.
Image: Paris Saint-Germain Donnaruma save image from Arsenal’s Gabriel Martinelli: Arsenal’s Leandro Torosador missed a big chance against PSG
Mikel Arteta’s reign at Arsenal, even if his progress is impressive, there is a risk that he will be characterized by near misses. They ran three years in the Premier League and now their Champions League run promises that a lot of things will be at risk of whispering.
Arteta and David Raya were quick to remind us of Arsenal’s performance at the Bernabeu after the match, as evidence that this team could more than pull off their big performances in Europe.
With the club’s history and Champions League status, there is no doubt that his play at Real Madrid will bring a unique challenge. But I feel this is completely different.
Arsenal was playing against a very overwhelming Real Madrid team with more stars than they knew what to do. PSG plays at a completely different level, bringing much bigger challenges.
If Arsenal delivers the history they long for and returns to the Champions League final for the first time since 2006, then, as Arteta said after the match, they will have to do something pretty special.
Arsenal felt cold on the PSG on the high speed starter
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Clinton Morrison responds to PSG’s early goals against Arsenal in the Champions League
PSG made 26 passes in four minutes with a lead-up to Dembele’s goal. It felt like Arsenal wasn’t touching the ball.
Arsenal was chasing the shadows for the first 20 minutes. The PSG jumped out of the trap and felt like it was outweighing the hosts most of the time. It is rare to see Arsenal being rejected and defeated like that, especially at home.
It was similar to PSG’s quarterfinals second round a few weeks ago at Villa Park. They lost that game but advanced the tally thanks to two goals they scored in the first 27 minutes. Arsenal, like a villa, was blown away early by PSG.
Luis Enrique clearly hopes that his team will blitz the opponent from the offs and catch them coldly. The pace they play in that moment is of course unsustainable in 90 minutes. As shown in Villa, he returned to victory 3-2, but was not enough to level the tie.
This match followed a similar pattern. Arsenal couldn’t count their control like a villa.
Perhaps it was the misfortune of playing your first leg at home. When Villa returned to the game against PSG, they did so with the knowledge that there was nothing to lose, but Arsenal played as if he had a handbrake.
When PSG compares to returning leg over the villa at home, he does not draw an Arsenal encouragement picture on the return leg.
Partey’s Return can boost Arsenal and unleash the US
Image: Arsenal’s Declan Rice during the UEFA Champions League semi-finals, first leg against PSG
One reason for Arsenal’s optimism in Game 2 is the return of Thomas Partey.
The midfielder was stopped due to a defeat in the Emirates after an unnecessary yellow card at the dying stage of the Bernabéu, and his absence was immediately felt against PSG.
Due to the PSG goal, Dembele ran straight through pitch part territory, occupying very often, and Arsenal was punished. It all felt too easy.
Partey certainly makes Arsenal a better team, but he also allows Declan Rice to return to his more natural box-to-box role. It was here that Rice asserted his authority over Real Madrid. His impact on the game has been significantly reduced against PSG.
There was a moment when he threatened to show his quality, but he was largely limited. The combination of Partey and Rice may be what Arsenal needs to turn this around.
What happened to the Arsenal set pieces?
Image: Arsenal Manager Mikel Arteta responds with touchline in the UEFA Champions League semifinal vs PSG
For a while, Arsenal appeared to exploit their set-piece advantage over PSG when Mikel Merino entered from Declan Rice’s late free kick to Val intervening to dominate the midfielder’s offside.
Arsenal was one of the rare occasions that had a good delivery on Tuesday night. This was surprising given how much this semi-final accumulation focuses on PSG vulnerabilities in such a scenario.
In League One, almost a third of PSG’s recognized targets come from the set pieces, a larger percentage than any other side of France. They are not very tall either. However, Arsenal was nothing to note to trouble them in the biggest game of the season.
Arsenal’s rate of return from such a scenario fell particularly in 2025. This is a painful timing for Arteta, who scored 12 set-piece goals in the first 21 games of the Premier League season.
Nicholas Joeber, the mastermind behind Arsenal’s impressive set-piece record, had to be pulled back by Arteta to stop time to go too far outside the team’s technical field. The frustration seemed to have been spilling.
PSG continues to control English
Image: Paris Saint-Germain’s Haussman Dembele celebrates scoring against Arsenal
PSG defeated four Premier League teams in this season’s Champions League campaign: Man City, Liverpool, Aston Villa and Arsenal.
We rewind to October when they lost in the Emirates, and such a reality could have been hardly imagined. Luis Enrique’s team is not aware of themselves now. A lot has changed for Parisians since then.
Ousmane Dembele, the maker of this time’s differences, was ruled out for action reasons, but had not discovered the fake nine positions that unleashed the best scoring season of his career.
The show from PSG, who returned to the Emirates, a far cry from the lightweight team bullied by Arsenal and beaten 2-0, had the show.
Arteta wanted to emphasize strengthening his victory over PSG, but Luis Enrique thought it was pointless given the passing of time. The PSG boss proved correct on that count.
His team is peaking at the right time as they are trying to make their own history. Of course, PSG has never won this competition either.
