It took just four minutes for PSG to score through Ousmane Dembélé, and from my perspective, the error came from Declan Rice.
But even without that goal, PSG clearly dominated Arsenal in attack.
The entire PSG defense had Bukayo Saka in their pocket. In fact, Saka was the only Arsenal attacker who posed any real threat—and because of that, he was completely surrounded. PSG didn’t bother marking Ødegaard or Martinelli tightly; their focus was solely on Saka.
Sure, Thomas Partey was missed. He’s a great player in the CDM role and can also contribute to the attack. But Partey tends to lose his head at times—that yellow card in the 85th minute of the Real Madrid game was totally unnecessary and ended up costing Arsenal his presence.
Still, leaving Partey out of this, Arsenal could have at least come away with a draw if they had another goal threat.
The reality is Arsenal doesn’t have a true striker. PSG didn’t use a natural striker either, but that was by choice—not due to injuries.
Now imagine this: multiple key injuries and no signings in January. No squad depth. Just running 11 players into the ground.
One of the key lessons from this UCL tie is that squad depth is crucial.
Arsenal also needs someone up front that defenders actually fear. PSG’s defense barely gave Martinelli a second thought.
And where were the overlapping runs to support Saka?
As for Ødegaard—Lord help me. Someone said:
“Ødegaard would receive the ball in a dangerous position and then dribble away from goal.”
Well, in this match, he was practically non-existent.
Even Ethan Nwaneri or Myles Lewis-Skelly looked more threatening in attack.
Ødegaard just disappeared. And this is supposed to be the captain?
Honestly, if Arsenal fails to win the UCL this season, it could go down as one of their most disappointing seasons.
Not that they’ve been serial trophy winners in other seasons, but this year seemed like the perfect opportunity to win the Premier League—and they blew it. Again. For the third time in a row.
But at least they made it to the UCL semi-finals for the first time since 2009—16 years ago. And how did they show up? Like drunkards.
Now, about the striker situation.
There have been rumors of Victor Osimhen and Benjamin Šeško being on Arsenal’s radar.
Both are great options, but I think Osimhen is more of a consistent goal threat.
Still, it’s up to the Arsenal board.
But seriously—everyone has been screaming for a proper striker for the past two or three seasons.
Yet the board seems to learn nothing.
Same old pattern: fall short, reset, come back next year—like an episode in a never-ending Netflix series. “Netflix fc”
Hopefully, they’ve learned something from this first-leg loss—and this summer, they actually take action.
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