PSG’s 20-minute masterclass exposed Arsenal’s fatal weakness

The demand from Mikel Arteta is now obvious, but the manner Arsenal get there is not. He said his team need “something special” after this 1-0 home defeat to Paris Saint-Germain in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final. There was then the same caveat as after Real Madrid. “It’s only half-time.” Luis Enrique went further, insisting this tie “has only started”.

That should make it even less of a surprise that both managers described this as a game “of different phases”.

There are duly a few ways to look at it, beyond the fact PSG have yet another lead against an English side. The night could have been so much worse for Arsenal, as they had a few issues exposed. They similarly know they can be better. Arsenal showed there are weaknesses to be exploited in the French side, but also so many strengths to try and stop.

It was notable that Arteta made such a point of saying Arsenal solved one “very specific” issue from the first 20 minutes with how his team moved the ball. That may still mean the tie ends up being decided by two very different individual moments at either end of this first leg.

There was obviously Ousmane Dembele’s superb goal after just three minutes; that remains the difference. There was then PSG’s flurry of late chances, and particularly Goncalo Ramos’s strike off the bar. It maybe says much about the night that Arsenal anxiously watched some of those efforts go astray, in the hope that a 1-0 defeat still gives them a significant chance in Paris. That could be fateful. Arteta may well lean on that.

In between, there was how performances ebbed and flowed. PSG had significant periods when they looked like the best team in Europe, and a level above.

There were then long stretches where Arsenal rallied, with Enrique admitting that Arteta’s team occasionally “dominated”. The timing of Merino’s disallowed goal probably didn’t help. Just as Arsenal were building an emotional momentum after half-time, it was suppressed by both the decision and the long wait. There was never the same heave.

Perhaps this is where Arteta’s absences really had an effect in Europe. That’s where the margins start to matter. It was like, with the absences they had, Arsenal had to figure out how to restructure their team on going behind.

Thomas Partey’s suspension, in particular, was to prove crucial in that one key moment. There was also the thinness of Arsenal’s attack. They were no longer just missing their main forward in Kai Havertz but also had such a shallow and young bench.

It was maybe no coincidence that Luis Enrique’s side had the better of the late chances, after a game that had become quite tactical. Arsenal had to try and force the opening, and did enjoy a lot of space on PSG’s left side. The problem was how many warnings they had on stepping out.

This might not be about how it finishes, though. It might be about how it started, which is evidently such a lesson with PSG.

You can prepare and think you have covered every angle, only for Enrique or one of those attackers to come up with a move you hadn’t imagined. In this case, it was the manner in which Dembele took up space in the false nine. Arsenal initially didn’t know how to deal with it, and it definitely didn’t help that was specifically where they were missing Partey’s energy.

Rice felt he had to help double-up on the electric Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, who of course created space and rolled the ball across for Dembele. The forward obliged and sent the ball into David Raya’s far corner.

It was the worst possible start, near the beginning of a 20-minute spell of extended excellence. This is what people are talking about when they enthuse about PSG as the best team in Europe. It is these sensational spells, when they combine an astonishing intensity with electric attack. That approach currently feels unique, and why an Enrique team is so different to Pep Guardiola’s.

There’s the speed of the transition, and then there’s the speed of the feet. Kvaratskhelia and Dembele can bring teams to areas they don’t want to go. It’s even more dispiriting for the opposition because, if they don’t get you by swarming your own box, they can easily get you when you’re trying to swarm theirs. As Arsenal repeatedly had to be on guard, you can be patiently building an attack only to find yourself relying on a desperate challenge near your own goal seconds later.

There is another side to that, too, though. It is impossible to indefinitely sustain. Arsenal also stopped Joao Neves playing those passes through, which may have been that “specific” issue Arteta was referring to. PSG consequently ebbed, and there is a residual vulnerability when you go at them.

That is especially the case on their right. Achraf Hakimi leaves such space behind, and Marquinhos can struggle to cover it. Most of Arsenal’s best moments – and certainly their best chances – came from there. Arteta might well insist they could have had three, even if that would have been a charitable scoreline given the general pattern of play.

Neves had to intercept superbly when the area seemed to open up for Merino, before Gianluigi Donnarumma then stopped superbly from similar breaks. In the first half, he turned Gabriel Martinelli’s effort away. In the second, it was Leandro Trossard’s. The latter was especially impressive given the power of the effort.

But that was kind of it. Unable to really bring much more quality in attack on, other than the teenage Ethan Nwaneri, the game kind of flattened out into this tense occasion.