Arsenal vs PSG: The Debrief

That's not how you would have written it up

Tiny margins.

That is so often what is the factor that determines things in this sport. The difference between a close but excellent first leg result and a hole to dig out of is a probably a collective couple of feet here.

• Ousmane Dembélé strike hits the post and goes in vs hits the post and stays out.

• Gabriel Martinelli can’t quite make the cleanest contact on his back post shot at an empty net.

• Mikel Merino scores but is offside on pretty tight call (to be fair not the tightest offside ever).

• Leandro Trossard is clean through on goal and has his shot go off the fingertips of Gianluigi Donnarumma and wide instead of into the goal.

• Bradley Barcola misses an attempt just wide of the post clean through.

• Gonçalo Ramos hits the cross bar after being played through.

If the margins on any of these change just a bit we could be talking about anywhere from a 2-3 goal Arsenal win to a 2-3 goal PSG win. Looking at the spread of outcomes hits this home.

The actual result of 0-1 was not all that likely from the chances that both team created here.

This is the result we got and that will drive the story of this game but I do strongly believe that this is one where it is just so tough to separate these teams and that is what makes Champions League semi-finals special.

That’s enough pre-amble let’s get into the actual format here.

Arsenal vs PSG: The Graphics

Arsenal vs PSG: The Debrief

Three mini matches in one

The first 20-30 minutes of this match was one of the biggest blitzes you will see from a team coming to the Emirates Stadium.

Arsenal didn’t look like they were ready for this because this wasn’t exactly a departure from the normal operating procedure for PSG.

Arsenal didn’t seem comfortable on the ball, they couldn’t advance it, nor did they do enough to disrupt PSG.

PSG had 6 passing sequences in the opening 25 minutes of over 7 passes, they had 13 where they had 5 or more passes. Arsenal had just 1 where they were able to string together more than 5 passes.

Arsenal still did well to limit the overall threat created here but the damage was done conceding in the opening minutes of the match.

The second period is very much a story of a team realizing that they do actually belong here and maybe some of the adrenaline that comes with a big occasion wearing off and things settling back towards normal.

In this middle period, Arsenal were on top and the stronger team.

This matches much more my expectation of how I expected Arsenal to be able to play here. The possession is close but Arsenal are able to limit PSG’s ability to advance into dangerous locations, while they are not nearly as good as limiting Arsenal.

This is the period where Arsenal have their three biggest chances of the match they just didn’t convert them into the goal that they needed here.

The last period of the match is very clearly some desperation from Arsenal mixed with running out of legs here. This is the period where it did look like a change would have been nice but the limited bench made this really tough for Arsenal and PSG coming in at full strength and no injuries were able to freshen up and withstand the final minutes.

They left themselves more open than typical (understandable) and it could have cost them but they had the good fortune that they didn’t get in their period of ascendancy to keep in the tie overall.

The timeline based graphics I think really also back this story.

This is just halftime of the overall tie, it didn’t go like we would have wanted at home but I think overall I have come out of this a bit more positive than perhaps I should with things a goal down.

Some of the biggest questions that have plagued Arsenal weren’t an issue as much here as they have been in the past.

Can Arsenal create when they are not tied or in front? Yes they can and did here. It isn’t going to be easy and Arsenal will come into the second legs underdogs but this performance should show that this team can still have belief.

Arsenal concede but the defense is still a positive

PSG have played 46 matches this season where there is xG in the FBref Database and Arsenal held them to one of their lowest outcomes, again. They have averaged 2.5 per match this season. PSG have been held under 1.5 xG just seven times this season, two of those are against Arsenal.

This is a team that is top of the xG charts and second for goals scored for the big fives leagues. They are second just 1 behind Bayern Munich with 15 matches this season where they have created 3.0 or more xG in a match.

Arsenal weren’t at their best and still held them to one of their lowest overall outputs of the season.

Odegaard is off of it

30 - Pass Attempts with 80.0% Pass completion percentage and 102.8% - Pass Efficiency

1 - Final 3rd Entry Pass completed

2 - Progressive Passes

2 - Deep Completions (not Cross)

1 - Key Pass for 0.01 xA (0 from open play)

7 - Forward Passes attempted

0 - Shots

1 - Dribbles Completed of 7 attempted

3 - Progressive Carries

4 - Progressive Passes Received

1 - Deep Touches

-0.05 - Goal Probability Added

No sugar coating it, this is not good enough.

I have defended Odegaard because often times the critiques and criticism of him has been off the mark. This match (and I think the Crystal Palace match as well) have had him look lost and well off the pace.

My metric that I use to try and capture and put a value on the actions a player does, is typically a spot where some of the underrated work that he does is captured but here it agrees with the story that he was poor.

I think one thing that we need to be careful about here is that even though he has been off it here, that doesn’t change that he was previously good and even this season has been much better than he has been given credit for.

We should talk about, analyze, and criticize his current level of performance but that doesn’t revise what he done previously.

Here, I would expect a lot more from him. He is supposed to be one of the hubs of the attacking play and he lacked much of any influence in the final third or the middle third of the pitch here.

Perhaps, the style of game didn’t suit him but that’s still a poor excuse and showing for him overall. Maybe there is more to his fitness than we know about, regardless it was painful to watch and see.