Ousmane Dembele and Mikel Arteta (Photo: Alex Grimm, Stuart Franklin/Getty Images)
PSG’s 5-4 win over Bayern Munich on Tuesday night was definitely one of the games of the season in terms of end-to-end entertainment.
But does that mean bad news for Arsenal in the Champions League, as many on social media think? I’m not very convinced.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s an absolute joy to watch elite attacking players express themselves like this – Hvitja Kvaratschelia and Desiree Doué on one end, Michael Olise and Luis Diaz on the other, are better than any player in world football right now.
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But those who are quick to blame the Premier League, and Arsenal in particular, for moving away from this type of football to the more tactical, defensive-minded game that has predominated in England this season, would do well not to overlook some key factors at work here.
Why PSG and Bayern are so much better than Premier League teams
Free-flowing, attacking football is a luxury that Arsenal and other Premier League teams cannot afford. Even Manchester City haven’t been playing like they used to for most of this season, with Championship side Southampton in the FA Cup semi-finals proving to be a tougher opponent than PSG and Bayern in most domestic games.
Bayern have already won the Bundesliga and have been through most of the season without an opponent, but PSG will likely once again be at the top of Ligue 1 this term. As you can imagine, these are two clubs whose personnel costs dwarf what they can spend on so-called competition in these leagues.
Given that context, it’s no wonder that Luis Enrique and Vincent Kompany can afford to focus on the freedom and self-expression that everyone wants from the Premier League’s best attacking players, but when their nearest challengers are probably on par with a mid-table team like Brentford, little control and discipline is needed.
Case in point: In a league game in this competition earlier this season, Arsenal beat Bayern 3-1 at the Emirates Stadium, but Harry Kane didn’t have a single shot. It’s not so easy when you’re not playing against opponents like Hamburg or St. Pauli, isn’t it, Harry?
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Where are the defenders?
“5-4 is a hockey score, not a football score,” Jose Mourinho said in 2004 after a particularly frenetic North London derby. “If you have a 3-on-3 training match and the score is 5-4, you send the players back to the locker room because they’re not defending properly. So to get a result like that in an 11-on-11 game is a disgrace.”
So, let’s be real, if Bayern or PSG defended like this against Arsenal in the Champions League final, the Gunners would go in with a serious shout.
Don’t get mad yet – I’m not saying Arsenal’s victory is guaranteed, and it wouldn’t even be wise to make them automatic favorites against Atletico Madrid.
But don’t let a highly entertaining match cloud your judgment. Yes, they are great players, but they are not tested every week like the best players in the Premier League, so they are still allowed to look like they are much better than they actually are. And Arsenal have already shown that when their defense is at its best, they can shut out opponents.
Far from being a warning should Arsenal advance against Atletico Madrid, tonight’s game is a sign that a thoroughly winnable final is in store for Mikel Arteta’s side. Perhaps a tougher test could come tomorrow night against the more defensive-minded Diego Simeone in Madrid.
