Speaking in his latest column, Sky Sports’ Paul Merson gives his verdict on Arsenal’s Champions League semi-final first leg defeat against Paris Saint-Germain as the Gunners lost 1-0 after an early Ousmane Dembele goal…
I just think the players were nervous. It was a big football match. It’s a semi-final of the Champions League. These players haven’t been in a semi-final before. They’re not seasoned pros in it. It doesn’t matter how much money you earn, you’re going to get nervous.
I just thought they were nervous. PSG came out, got that early goal and they had them on the rack.
It was like Arsenal were sort of scared, and I thought they thought, ‘If we let in another goal here, we’re out of the cup tie already. We’re literally out of the cup tie’.
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I know that didn’t happen in the other semi-final with Inter Milan because they went 2-0 up against Barcelona. Barcelona play a different way to Arsenal.
Arsenal got back into the game steadily, but they’ll be disappointed. There are certain games you get in your life, and you think, ‘I could have probably done more in that game’. And I think there are a lot of players that would have sat in the dressing room after that game or gone home and gone to bed and thought, ‘I didn’t really turn up’.
It happens. You just hope it doesn’t happen on the big stage in the big games, and it did on Tuesday night.
‘Odegaard must turn up in second leg’
Martin Odegaard failed to have a major impact in the first leg
They missed Thomas Partey unbelievably. It stopped Declan Rice bombing forward.
Declan’s playing as well as anybody at the moment. He’s bombing forward, making runs, getting into the box. One of their only chances they did have – the Leandro Trossard chance – that was from Declan Rice, making a bursting run. We didn’t get as many of them because of the position he had to play.
Martin Odegaard will have to turn up. I’m a big fan of Odegaard, but he didn’t perform the other night.
But they’ve got another chance. They should have been completely blown out of this competition the other night. They had chances PSG.
I think it’s down to the first goal. I think if Arsenal score the first goal, that wipes out Tuesday’s performance and it’s game on. But I think if Paris Saint-Germain score first, then I can’t see any way back.
Oliver Yew and James Savundra recap Arsenal’s 1-0 loss to Paris Saint-Germain
I know people will say, ‘Well, Villa went 4-1 down’, but Villa were at home. They had nothing to lose. They had a right go, scored two goals in three minutes and they got back in the game.
People will say, ‘Oh, Arsenal won at the Bernabeu’, but Arsenal won on the last kick of the game with Gabriel Martinelli running away from the defender with a minute to go. If it’s 1-1 at the Parc des Princes, PSG are not going to be playing gung-ho football.
I think Arsenal are right up against it, but with Partey back you never know.
‘Fans were as nervous as players’
You get there and they’re singing ‘North London Forever’, the atmosphere’s great, and then all of a sudden Paris Saint-Germain score after four minutes.
Arsenal displayed a tifo before kick-off
Of course, it deflates you. It deflated the players. It did the fans. The fans would have been nervous. They’re turning up, it’s the semi-final and you’ve got an unbelievable opportunity of winning the Champions League, which they’ve never done.
I just think it caught up with everybody, and I think that goal in the first four minutes was critical. I think the fans got as nervous as what the players did, it was as simple as that.
It was just one of them situations where that goal literally killed the game for me for the first 20 minutes. And Arsenal got nervous, PSG started playing around them. PSG looked like the Harlem Globetrotters, and that’s the way it sort of panned out.
Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta gives his thoughts after their 1-0 loss to PSG
Arsenal had a couple of chances. I thought they done well to get back into the game and didn’t need half-time. But they lose 1-0, and it could have probably been 3-0.
They’re back in it again now, they’ve got a chance but I don’t give them too much of a chance, if I’m being honest.
Can Arsenal overturn first-leg deficit to reach CL final?
Of course they’ve got a chance. They’re a good team, Arsenal, they don’t become a bad team overnight.
I saw PSG destroy Liverpool, but they still lost the game. For how well they played, Liverpool won that football match.
PSG’s Ousmane Dembele celebrates his winner at Arsenal
Because they’ve only lost 1-0, they don’t have to go and score that goal in the first 10 minutes. I think as long as they can get through the first 20 minutes and keep it quiet at the Parc des Princes, because it will be an unbelievable atmosphere.
They don’t have to score straight away so they’ve got to be patient, play themselves into the game, make sure they stay in this game as long as they can. And then the last 20 to 25 minutes, have a right go and have a gung-ho go at them, open the game up and see what happens.
Because don’t worry, PSG, the longer this game goes on at 1-0, will get very nervous. They’ve got an unbelievable opportunity of winning the Champions League, where with the players they used to have and the talent, we never really thought they could win it, and now they will get nervous.
So I think Arsenal have to stay in the game. I think the first 20 minutes is very important. I think if Arsenal can get in at 0-0 first half, you never know.
This news was originally published on this post .
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