The Arsenal stage would deliver a famous evening in the Emirates. In the end, reality was far from it, when the side of Mikel Arteta fails against Paris Saint-Germain with an emptying version.
The nature of their victory over Real Madrid In the quarterfinals, Arsenal filled with hope and confidence that after their season threatened to bustle, they had found a equipment. History was already written and they wanted more.
The Emirates was a kettle of noise in the structure of the first semifinal of the club of the first Champions League for 16 years and the fans were as noisy as this stadium she knew. Ousmane Dembele's fourth minute strike cuts all of that through.
The fans of Arsenal recovered after that short bewildered silence, but left the stadium and wanted more. Leandro Trossard and Gabriel Martinelli had their chances, and there was that rescue from Gianluigi Donnarumma, but Arsenal did not do enough in the end.
The reign of Mikel Arteta in Arsenal, no matter how impressive the progress, runs the risk that they will be characterized by almost -missers. Premier League-Tweede Three years in a row, and now their Champions League run that promised a lot of risk of going out with a whimmer.
Arteta and David Raya quickly reminded us of those Arsenal performance in the Bernabeu after the game as proof that this team is more than able to remove a big performance in Europe.
There is no doubt that playing in Real Madrid, with the history and status of the club in the Champions League, is a unique challenge, a challenge that Arsenal came up with APLomb. However, this feels very different.
Arsenal played against a fairly overwhelming Real Madrid team with more stars than they know what to do with it. PSG plays at a completely different level and is certainly a much greater challenge.
If Arsenal has to give history, they crave and return to the Champions League final for the first time since 2006, then, as Arteta said after the competition, they will have to do something rather special.
Arsenal caught the cold by Fast-Starters PSG
PSG made 26 passes in the run -up to the goal of Dembele four minutes. It felt like Arsenal hadn't even touched the ball.
Arsenal chased shadows during the first 20 minutes. PSG flew out of the traps and almost always felt like they had their hosts in the minority. It is rare to see Arsenal so over -playing and elaborated, especially at home.
A few weeks ago there were parallels with PSG's quarter -final second stage in Villa Park. They lost that match, but continued to go through two goals scored in the first 27 minutes. Arsenal, just like Villa, was blown away early by PSG.
Luis Enrique clearly wants his team to blush their opponent of the off Blitz to catch them cold. The pace where they play at those moments is of course untenable for 90 minutes, as shown at Villa, which came back to win 3-2, but just does not meet the leveling of the draw.
This competition followed a similar pattern. Arsenal was simply unable to have their dominance count like Villa.
Perhaps the accident of playing the first leg at home was a factor. When Villa broke back in the match against PSG, they did that with the knowledge that they had nothing to lose, while Arsenal performed as if they sometimes had the handbrake.
Comparing the dominance PSG had a villa at home compared to the return bone, it does not paint an encouraging image for Arsenal in the return bone.
The return of Pedey can stimulate Arsenal and release rice
A reason for optimism in the second stage for Arsenal will be Thomas Pedey's return.
The midfielder was suspended for the defeat of the Emirates after an unnecessary yellow card in the dying phases in the Bernabeu, and his absence was immediately felt against PSG.
For the purpose of PSG, Dembele was right through the area of the pitch that so often occupied and Arsenal was punished. It all felt too easy.
Partey certainly makes Arsenal a better team, but he also lets Declan Rice return to his more natural box-to-box role. It was here that Rice claimed his authority about Real Madrid. His impact on the game was greatly reduced against PSG.
There were times when he threatened to show his quality, but he was largely limited. The combination of Pedey and Rice may be what Arsenal needs to reverse this.
What happened to Arsenal's set pieces?
For a moment it seemed that Arsenal had used their set piece superiority compared to PSG when Mikel Merino came in from Declan's second half of free kick until VAR entered to rule the midfielder outside.
It was one of the rare cases that Arsenal brought a good delivery on Tuesday evening, which came a surprise, considering how much of the structure of this semi-final aimed at the vulnerability of PSG in such scenarios.
In Ligue 1, almost a third of the admitted goals from PSG comes from Set pieces, a larger part than any other side in France. They are also not a very long side. Yet Arsenal could not be important to harass them in the biggest competition of their season.
Arsenal's return from such scenarios is mainly deposited in 2025, which will come as painful timing for Arteta, whose side 12 set-piece goals scored in the first 21 games of the Premier League season.
Nicolas Jover, the brain behind the impressive record of Arsenal, had to be withdrawn by Arteta in a stop time to go too far outside the technical area of the team. Frustrations, that's how it seemed.
PSG continues their English dominance
PSG has now defeated four Premier League teams – Man City, Liverpool, Aston Villa and Arsenal – in this season's Champions League campaign.
Rinse back to October, when they lost at the Emirates, and such a reality would hardly have been conceivable. The Luis Enrique team would not recognize itself now. Since then, so much has changed for the Parisians.
Ousmane Dembele, this time the difference maker, was omitted to discover behavioral reasons and yet to discover the false nine position that has unleashed the best scores season of his career.
There was a courage from PSG on their return to the Emirates that was far removed from the lightweight team that was bullied and was defeated by Arsenal 2-0.
Arteta wanted to emphasize that victory over PSG as a source of confidence in the structure, while Luis Enrique thought it was pointlessly seen how much time had passed. The PSG boss was immediately proven on that count.
His team peaks at the right time while they try to write their own history. PSG has of course never won this competition.