PSG expect a tough test from the Gunners!
Well Arsenal just about scraped a win this weekend against Southampton, in which ended up as a 2-1 victory for the Gunners at the Emirates. A 94th minute Santi Cazorla penalty is what decided the match for the Gunners late on and Arsene Wenger played a very tactical side that clearly had PSG in mind.
Wenger chose to largely base his selection with the midweek champions league game in the back of his mind, with both Alexis and Giroud sitting on the bench, whilst Perez, Chamberlain and Walcott, all who could play an important part out in France, were all substituted to ensure their fitness doesn’t drop too low.
Arsenal of course travel to Paris ahead of Tuesday night’s game, Arsenal’s first champions league game of the campaign, and realistically PSG are going to be our biggest challengers in the group. Even though they may have lost the likes of Ibrahimovich and David Luiz this summer, they still have a number of quality players and the game at the Parc de Princes will not be easy. The Gunners will have to work hard in order to come away with all three points, however no matter how nervous we may be going into the game, it seems that the PSG players also have doubts about the opposition.
PSG midfielder Thiago Motta stated he believes that Arsenal will be a far greater test than the French sides previous English opposition in recent years. PSG have played Chelsea in recent Champions League campaigns and have come away as worthy winners, however Motta seems to believe that Arsenal are a far harder test than the Blues and so they fully expect a tough game from the Gunners. Motta said: “Arsenal are a level above Chelsea because they like to play. We have not faced an English team that plays this way.”
Although Motta may claim that it’s Arsenal’s style of play that concerns them, ultimately even though they may not have played us in the recent era, Arsenal’s game very much focuses around passing, much like Barcelona, a team that PSG will be far more familiar with. Arsenal should take the game to them and it will be interesting to see how the Gunners do against such strong opposition in the opening round of fixtures, but if I was to make a suggestion, no matter how unprepared PSG may feel, I’m sure they are in the stronger position before a ball has been kicked.
AH