“Arsenal will win Champions League this season but only if Mikel Arteta do this particular thing”: Manchester City coach Pep Guardiola has named ONE thing Arsenal must do if they really want to win Champions League this season
Paris Saint-Germain continued their superb form with a 2-1 win against Le Havre in Ligue 1 ahead of facing Arsenal in the Champions League-semi-finals.
Just four days on from their 5-4 aggregate victory over Aston Villa, PSG were back in action with Achraf Hakimi and Bradley Barcola the only two to retain their respective places. With the Ligue 1 title won, Luis Enrique can afford to rotate and given what his side face in the next week, it is no surprise he did exactly that.
This coming Tuesday, PSG’s rearranged fixture away to Nantes takes place and just 72 hours later, they are back in action with Nice as the visitors to the Parc Des Princes.
Though winning league games does not overly matter anymore, PSG will want to keep the momentum and they were able to do exactly that this weekend. Goals from Goncalo Ramos and Desire Doue saw all three points secured, though Issa Soumare did pull one back.
The first goal came through some excellent combination play between Doue and Barcola, with the latter feeding the former Rennes man in the box and he then finished expertly.
Very rarely are the exciting wingers on the pitch at the same time with only one of them often joined by Ousmane Dembele and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia in the front three. Despite that duo being the marquee attackers, both Barcola and Doue have shown the impact they can have and Arsenal should absolutely be wary of that.
Mikel Arteta’s side posses some strengths of their own however, with Bukayo Saka fully fit again and Declan Rice delivering some sensational performances in recent weeks.
Stopping the free-roaming Dembele could become his task for the first leg with Thomas Partey suspended after picking up his third booking of their Champions League campaign against Real Madrid.
Arsenal’s fixture schedule is somewhat similar to the one facing PSG but the key difference is that they have one less game to play. Following their trip to Portman Road for a clash against Ipswich Town on Sunday, Crystal Palace are the visitors to Emirates Stadium in the middle of next week.
That game being brought forward due to the Eagles’ FA Cup semi-final against Aston Villa means Arsenal do not play the weekend before their first leg against PSG.
