Thierry Henry criticizes Arsenal after Champions League semifinal loss to PSG: ‘A lot needs to be changed’

Arsenal legend Thierry Henry was critical of the Gunners’ performance in the first leg of the UEFA Champions League semifinals, arguing they made “so many mistakes” as Paris Saint-Germain registered a 1-0 win on Tuesday.

The French champions scored the game’s lone goal in the fourth minute, courtesy of Ousmane Dembele, which was reflective of the visitors’ impressive early start. Arsenal settled into the match later in the first half and were perhaps at their most dominant in the last 20 minutes, though Henry was complimentary of PSG manager Luis Enrique’s ability to manage that final stretch of the game.

“Paris Saint-Germain were far superior for me in this game so a lot needs to be changed in order for Arsenal to make sure they can beat Paris Saint-Germain over there and it’s going to be a different ballgame,” Henry said on the UEFA Champions League Today post-match show. “As soon as Dembele came out of this game, Paris Saint-Germain dropped a bit more. It was easier for Arsenal to put pressure because Dembele wasn’t coming on the ball. It was a bit different tactically than what Luis Enrique was doing. He accepted to not have the ball in the last 20 minutes.”

Henry was particularly critical of how the Gunners started the game, when they seemed unable to handle PSG’s press and conceded the game’s lone goal. He said it was “too early to get caught like that” and went into detail about the mistakes Arsenal made in the buildup to Dembele’s goal, starting from the very beginning of the play, deep inside PSG’s half.

“When you go under pressure against a team like Paris Saint-Germain at the beginning, which I understand, you gotta be on point, and you see the first mistake for me is Bukayo Saka and how he went to put the pressure, which doesn’t happen often,” Henry said. “As you’re going to see at the beginning of the game, Paris Saint-Germain, they wanted to be on the front foot and put pressure.

“You can see [Martin] Odegaard is asking for everybody to come so they are coming. You won’t see it now, but [Jurien] Timber is going to come now with [Khvicha] Kvaratskhelia. What you do is you bend your run to make sure that [Nuno] Mendes is on the play there. You can’t go and put pressure straight because as a lefty, he will have the possibility to pass that ball inside. … That’s the first mistake. You cannot allow them to play inside. Bend your run, show him the line. Don’t show him inside.”

The result and performance means the onus is on Arsenal to correct course for next week’s second leg in Paris, but Henry was also clear-minded about the fact that a one goal deficit is not a death sentence.

“Anything can happen. I said it before – [PSG] didn’t score that second goal, seal in the tie,” he said. “You’re still in the tie.”