LOSS UEFA Champions League Semi Final: Arsenal 0 - 1 Paris Saint-Germain (1st Leg) | Tuesday, 29th April | KO: 20:00 BST | Amazon Prime Video/TNT Sports

So here it is…



5th May 2009

The biggest movies of the year were Inglorious Basterds, Avatar and the Hurt Locker. Dizzee Rascal and Kanye West (ahem) dominated the charts and David Cameron was still sat in opposition.

Lionel Messi was about to win his first Ballon d’Or AND Arsenal last played in the semi finals of a Champions League. We’ve waited almost 16 years… so many false dawns and even a half decade in the footballing wilderness of the Europa League but now…

WE’RE BACK!

You have to go even further back for our last winning semi final effort with this heart stopper against Villarreal in 2006.



That’s right almost 20 years since that famous night in the then Madrigal. Hopefully the spirit of Jens won’t be needed by Raya over the two legs…

Predicted Team



After the last round the line-up pretty much sets itself. The big hope is that both Merino and White come through their injury scares.

Whilst obviously it’s Merino who’s most important the bench is looking very light with this game probably arriving too soon for Calafiori and Jorginho even though they should be back for the return leg.

The threat of the team depending on whether it’s Trossard or Merino up front is night and day. In a few short weeks Merino has proven to be our signing of the season raking with both goals and assists.

The Opposition

After defeating the biggest name in club football in the quarter finals we now face probably the most in form.

From the new year they’ve won 23, drawn 2 and lost 2 with those two losses coming in legs against Villa and Liverpool when they still managed to progress regardless.

Now whilst as per usual they have steamrollered Ligue 1 their form in the CL has been iffy. A lot of people point to their form post January when they’ve comprehensively slapped up City (although so did we and even Real Madrid managed it) and Stuggart but to my eyes they have looked very uncertain at times against Villa and Liverpool.

Villa in particular had them fully on the ropes looking dazed and PSG needed a dodgy injury time allocation to really get them over the line.

PSG are one of the four other clubs that our manager has played for, and we have an unbeaten record against them having won twice and drawn three of our previous competitive matches, a record we extended earlier this season in the Group Stage when we comprehensively put them away.



Notice both goals coming from crosses… set pieces have proven to be a constant weakness for them this year so hopefully Joever has been cooking something up in the lab.

There are a few former players who’ve played for both clubs ranging from the ridiculous (David Luiz and Kaba Diawara) to the sublime with our once upon a time teenage phenom Nicolas Anelka sandwiching his time at Arsenal and Real between two stints with the Parisians.



Danger Man

extended. Again this isn’t necessarily the star studded PSG team that’s so embarrassingly flattered to deceive in Europe over the years.

Gone are the “Galacticos” of Neymar, Mbappe, Messi, Ramos and Cavani now replaced with a glittering array of youngsters such as Zaire-Emery, Barcola and in particular Desire Doue who looks scarily good.

We could also say Kvaratskhelia who’s arrival in January has coincided with a higher level for PSG but in terms of danger men it has to be the man with more goals than starts this year…



Ousmane Dembele who has been in frightening form in both Ligue 1 and Champions League.

COYG LETS SMASH THEM

 

[Red London]

Maybe. But how many Arsenal players would you pick for a combined 11?

Donnarumma
Hakimi/Timb Saliba Marq MLS/Mendes
Rice Partey Vitinha
Saka Dembele Kvaratskelia

Raya is a better overall keeper than Donnarumma but for a 1 off tie which could go to pens you gotta give him the nod. If it goes to pens there’s a high chance they win it, at least on the keeper side of things.

Fullback positions are impossible to choose. These are 4 of the best fullbacks in the world at the moment.

You could argue Merino over Dembele form wise, the guy has been elite.

It’s a shame because Ødegaard from last season gets in that team, and so does Gabriel if he was fit.

 

[Rex Stone]

Raya
Timber Saliba Pacho Mendes
Vitinha Rice Neves
Saka Dembele Kvara

That has to be combined XI imo. Gabriel if he’s fit gets in their but there attacking options are sumptuous.

 

[balthazar]

Interesting, while everyone says PSG have the individual quality over Arsenal, you two chose 5-6 Arsenal players in the combined 11.

 

[Vinci]

Striker and left wing is where they're clearly better, midfield is about equal, but we have better defenders.

It's very, very close. But they have that bottler DNA, so I'd fancy us to beat them.

 

[Gooner Zig]

Interesting, while everyone says PSG have the individual quality over Arsenal, you two chose 5-6 Arsenal players in the combined 11.

I think that comment is more of a reference to the front 6 positions.

 

[Dennis_Bergkamp_10]

They are better than us but their play suits us, they will control the game and we will have our chances on the counter attack.

 

[dino bravo]

Raya
Timber Saliba Pacho Mendes
Vitinha Rice Neves
Saka Dembele Kvara

That has to be combined XI imo. Gabriel if he’s fit gets in their but there attacking options are sumptuous.

Yes that is pretty accurate, but I guarantee most people would put a similar number of ours in a combined side with Madrid and we chewed them up and spat them out.

 

[MD3 Gunner]

أعوذُ بِٱللَّهِ مِنَ ٱلشَّيۡطَٰنِ ٱلرَّجِيمِ​

 

[db10_therza]

And people go on about how much we spend

These figures are from last season. Since then they’ve shed Mbappe, their wages have come down a lot. A lot of their players are young and relatively low wages. Our wages meanwhile have gone up a lot since start of last season because of new contracts.

I’d be surprised if the two wage bills weren’t much much closer now.

 

[Mraven]

People are way overhyping PSG. They haven’t met a proper team apart from Liverpool since November. Back then they got smacked by all the top teams in the group stage

 

[MD3 Gunner]

People are way overhyping PSG. They haven’t met a proper team apart from Liverpool since November. Back then they got smacked by all the top teams in the group stage

Yeah I agree. They're a very good team dont get me wrong but at the same time heavily overestimated.

 

[DJ_Markstar]

Yeah I agree. They're a very good team dont get me wrong but at the same time heavily overestimated.

They're probably looking at how we toasted a better version of them (Real Madrid) and thinking how are they going to score against us at all.

I think we'll slap them up at home and I back our defence to shut them out away, 4-2 to us on agg.

 

[DJ_Markstar]

Interesting, while everyone says PSG have the individual quality over Arsenal, you two chose 5-6 Arsenal players in the combined 11.

Even our "weaker" players are perfectly capable of providing moments, Martinelli/Merino vs Madrid for e.g. and then you've got the likes of Rice and Saka who also provide moments a lot. I think we're fine for individual quality.

 

[Beany]

Even our "weaker" players are perfectly capable of providing moments, Martinelli/Merino vs Madrid for e.g. and then you've got the likes of Rice and Saka who also provide moments a lot. I think we're fine for individual quality.

Yes, they dominated their predictably poor league then turned it on in their last few CL games - They beat Liverpool, but shooting Jesse James doesn’t make you Jesse James and the Villa leg showed. Tbf you could say the same of us and Real but for me, we should have the edge here, if we play to our abilities.

 

[Artemis]

Yes, they dominated their predictably poor league then turned it on in their last few CL games - They beat Liverpool, but shooting Jesse James doesn’t make you Jesse James and the Villa leg showed. Tbf you could say the same of us and Real but for me, we should have the edge here, if we play to our abilities.

We have far more to our game than PSG. We can score a range of different goals and we actually have against Real Madrid: set-pieces, from recycling possession & counter attacks. We also have a better defense.

I would be extremely disappointed if we lost to PSG. Even on their best days they're a peer-competitor.

 

[SuperGoon]

Had a dream (nightmare) that Raya had a nightmare in the first few couple of the game and put us down 1-0 by stepping over his own line.

 

[Hleb's Sirush]

I will say what I said before the first Real game. Don't make any big mistake at the back and hand them cheap goal(s) and we have a good chance to do them. Really need 100% concentration from all our players.

We tend to do so much better against teams who will come at us, loads of space for us to exploit. Saka and Martinelli should have some joy.

And finally you need a little bit of luck if the games are tight. PSG can be quite wasteful in terms of putting away their chances, I'm just hoping this isn't the game were they suddenly take any half chance they get .

 

[bastun]

They are better than us but their play suits us, they will control the game and we will have our chances on the counter attack.

Quite the opposite imo. If we let them control the game we are probably going to lose. Our high press is the biggest weapon against them. We won't let them build up and will force them to go long where we are superior by a lot. Thats how we beat them.

 

[Artemis]

Btw Inter Milan are most likely finished. I was wondering why their recent form was appalling and only found out today that their players are "exhausted both mentally & physically" (literally the words of one of their players).

They were chasing the treble this season and it looks like their energy levels are depleted.

If they somehow got past Barca (which is very unlikely), they would be easy pickings in the CL Final.

 

[Mudi]

Partey will be a big miss...