Arsenal Vs PSG [0-1] Champions League Semi-Final First Leg 2024/2025: How Mikel Arteta & Luis Enrique Fought For Control – Tactical Analysis

Paris Saint-Germain brought home a victory from their UEFA Champions League trip to North London.

They beat Arsenal 1-0 in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final.

As Mikel Arteta pointed out in his press conference, it was a victory down to the small margin and the efficiency of PSGs attack.

Well, Arteta will be hoping he has a full-strength side for the second leg.

He certainly may be hoping that one of Kai Havertz or Gabriel Jesus will be there, as Arsenal do not look particularly efficient up front.

In that game, Arteta used a front three of Gabriel Martinelli, Leandro Trossard and Bukayo Saka.

He couldnt play Mikel Merino up front because he needed the Spaniard in midfield after Thomas Partey was ruled out of the first leg.

It wasnt the ideal lineup to face PSG, who had young, energetic, and quick attackers in Ousmane Dembélé, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Désiré Doué, and Bradley Barcola coming off the bench.

However, if you examine the game, Arsenals defeat was not solely due to their attacking personnel.

It was more about how Luis Enrique was able to outsmart Arteta in certain aspects of the game.

Yes, the underlying numbers may favour Arsenal, as they had 1.63 expected goals (xG) compared to PSGs 1.16.

However, if we take out Martinellis chance in the 40th minute, which was arguably offside, Arsenal only have 0.80 xG, and you can see why the exact score is 1-0 to PSG.

This Arsenal vs PSG tactical analysis examines the PSG tactics that defeated Arsenal and why Mikel Arteta was unable to outsmart Luis Enrique tactics for the entire 90 minutes.

Arsenal Pressing Vs PSG

From the outset, Arsenal tended to press PSG with five or six players.

They tried to overload PSGs first phase of the build-up, or at least not be outnumbered there, to prevent PSG from moving the ball forward.

By trying to make it difficult for PSG to advance through the middle, Arteta may have hoped to force PSG to play long or move the ball to the side, allowing Arsenal to overload PSG there.

However, thats not what happened.

PSG were able to take advantage of Arsenals