One of the reasons that Arsenal found it so hard to win at home to Southampton on Saturday was the complacent attitude of some of our players. It appeared to me that a lot of the Gunners out there on the pitch almost believed they only had to turn up to claim the points.
That will certainly not be the case tomorrow, when a probably much changed Arsenal side run out at the Parc Des Princes in Paris to open our Champions League campaign with what is likely to be the hardest game of all, away to the French Ligue 1 champions PSG.
The attitude of every Arsenal player should be much more fully focused and concentrated for this UCL clash, even though the Gunners have a proud and remarkable record of getting out of the group stage. It will be especially so for the new signing Shkodran Mustafi, as before last season with Valencia, who did not do too well and finished behind Zenit and Genk, he had just one Europa League appearance as a sub to his name.
In an Evening Standard report the German declared that he was not too bothered about this or what may happen in the future, but was thinking only about Tuesday night and performing against PSG.
Mustafi said, “I don’t think too much about the past and I don’t think too much about the future,” he told Standard Sport.
“The most important thing is to concentrate on the present and be prepared for the game. It’s not going to be easy in Paris because all the teams in the Champions League are big teams, with big players.
“It’s important that we play our game and try to get the three points.”
That souns like the perfect way of thinking to me, but will it be shared by his Arsenal team mates? And will the Gunners get the right result to set us on the road to finally winning a group?
Bob.