1 - Omens aren’t necessarily what they are cracked up to be. 

So we football fans are a superstitious bunch and here’s how I saw it.  Last time we met Real Madrid we beat them en route to the final.  Last time we met PSG it was in a semi en route to a Final which we won.  Neither side has ever beaten us.  A trip to Munich is written in the stars.  Ah.  Er….Perhaps not.   It’s still not over of course but we have now lost to PSG for the first time and we face a stiff task.  But it ain’t done.

2 - Were we over-confident? 

I am afraid I think we were.  When I say we, I mean the fans, not the team.  I had the sense we collectively thought we had done the hard work v Real and this was just a necessary irritating stepping stone on our inevitable path to the Final.  I think that translated into an atmosphere that whilst initially excellent was pricked by the early goal and never really recovered. 

3 - Why did it all feel a bit flat? 

I said before the home game against Madrid that I thought the pre-match build up (for what was after all “only” a quarter-final) was overly dramatic and excessive.  It felt to me as if we as a Club and a fanbase were treating it as the Final. 

I cannot deny it created an incredible atmosphere – the best the Emirates has seen – but where do you go from there.  Even pre-match last night it just wasn’t at the same level and I am afraid I was distinctly unimpressed by the big cannon flag.  Wow!  That’ll strike fear into their hearts.  No coloured cards (plastic bags v Madrid but in this environmentally conscious day and age that was not going to happen again) to greet the players was I think a missed trick.  And the crowd did not in large part seem to have heeded the call to wear red. 

The appallingly organised silence for the Pope didn’t help either.  Not saying it shouldn’t have happened but nobody seemed ready for it (our team were still in a huddle) and nobody was sure when it was actually starting.  

A well organised and respected period of silence can if anything enhance the atmosphere with the roar that follows the whistle ending the silence. 

Last night it had no such effect because it was all a bit “what’s going on?”.   It definitely put a dent in the build up as a result.  When PSG scored the bubble was pricked and it felt that the belief drained from the stadium. 

Yes the performance from the team wasn’t quite at the level we wanted but yesterday was an occasion where the team needed the crowd to swell their hearts and get their blood pumping.  It didn’t happen save for one or two patches.

4 - How bad was the referee? 

Genuinely this was a shocking performance from a referee who never felt in control of the match.  Let’s be honest – Timber was fortunate indeed to be on the pitch after half an hour with his multiple fouls on their winger. 

The ref’s obsession with throw ins being taken from what he determined to be the right place (whatever the reality) was tedious in the extreme and prevented quick throw ins for both sides.  It was unmatched by his cavalier approach to where the many free-kicks were taken from and at one point he couldn’t even be bothered to draw the lines leaving defenders to stand wherever they wanted.  I thought both sides could have had penalties without much complaint. 

He played a rugby length advantage for them but didn’t return the compliment late on for us.  He should have given Hakimi a second yellow for his foul on Martinelli near the end.  He gave far to many soft fouls and often the wrong way.  He never let the game flow.  A really poor performance.

5 - We started on the back foot

Sometimes you can just tell from the outset what sort of performance it is going to be.  Against Real we were all over them like unfed Rottweilers unleashed on a team wearing shirts that had been dipped in fresh meat. 

Last night we were more pussy cat nervously  gauging its prey as if not sure whether it was easy meat or too dangerous to take the chance on.  PSG meanwhile were like a bad rash, spreading over all areas of our half.  Whenever an Arsenal player had the ball  he was immediately swamped by opponents and there was a clear strategy to unsettle Raya by putting him under immediate pressure every time he had it. 

We had to start in fifth gear and we didn’t.  They did and it took us forever to find a foothold in the game.  And that might have been fine had they not got the early goal, but they did.

6 - It was a bad goal to concede

Timber got sucked infield by a runner, ending up with Saliba on the same player leaving their winger in acres of space.  Rice came too deep into our area losing sight of Dembele who himself had far too much space on the edge of the box.  Raya was completely unsighted.  For an elite defensive team (and that is what we are) it was really poor.

7 - Was this 1st leg lost in Madrid? 

Not one of you reading this will have failed to realise the significance of the moment Thomas Partey lost his composure in the second leg and as a result lost his place in the team for last night.  Put simply, with Partey in his current form in the team, that PSG goal does not happen.

8 - They bossed the first 30 minutes 

It was reminiscent of Barcelona in their prime in 2011 when they utterly destroyed us for 30 minutes, playing some of the best football I have ever seen.   After 15 minutes I said to that we just had to stay in the game at this point.  We had to minimise the damage. 

9 - We grew into the game   

We had chances towards the end of the first half.  Wonderful play by Saka on the left almost led to Martinelli scoring and Martinelli had a great chance in a 1 on 1 that I thought he would tuck away in his current form.  Sadly the keeper pulled off the first of two excellent saves.  At half time I wasn’t unhappy.  It felt like we had soaked up the best they had to offer and only conceded the one goal.  We had shown we could hurt them so  there was confidence in our group that we could repeat what we did to that Barcelona team and turn it around in the second half.

10 - It’s the fine margins at this level  

PSG scored  with a shot that hit the post and could easily have stayed out.  We scored early in the second half with a goal that to the naked eye looked fine – a classic Arsenal set piece goal.  VAR decided otherwise, picking the frame that had a toenail offside.  If they had used the next frame, I suspect the toenail was safely onside.  

Offside was never intended to be that marginal but that’s what technology does for you and we will at times benefit from such decisions ourselves. 

Trossard almost scored a lovely goal but again the keeper was equal to his task.  A superb save – not only did he get enough on the ball to send it wide of the post but he also avoided getting too much on the ball and pushing it into the waiting Martinelli’s path.   

11 - Merino was outstanding

The only foot he put wrong all night was the one that strayed marginally offside. Beyond that I thought he was our player of the match.  He seemed to be everywhere and one tackle on the edge of our box in the first half was just brilliant.

12 - We lost but PSG will be concerned

Towards the end we seemed to lose our control a bit.  It was as if they had worn us down, frazzled our circuits and shut down our football intelligence.  We played with no pattern and no drive.  Too often we resorted to the default of giving it to Raya and hoping he could start something.  As a result our defensive communication and cohesion floundered and PSG had 2 or 3 really good chances to put the tie to bed.  They didn’t. 

They will know that at this level, there is a world of difference between taking a 3-0 lead back to Paris and taking a 1-0 lead back.  They will know we could have scored last night.  They will be uncertain whether to stick or twist.

13 - We can turn this around but we will need to up our game and up our level.  The team that hammered Real Madrid over 2 legs can win in Paris.  The team that played last night won’t.  We need to rediscover the starving Rottweiler within us.  We did stay in the tie last night which was the minimum we had to do but we could easily not have done.  We have a second chance. 

14 - 21 years ago an Arsenal anthem was born at the Parc des Princes

At half time, with the score at 0-0, Go West  by the Pet Shop Boys came over the tannoy.  Some in the away end started singing the chorus, adapting it to “la la we’re the Arsenal, la la we’re the Arsenal”. 

It caught on, we all joined in and it gradually morphed into “1-0 to the Arsenal”, reflecting Ian Wright’s opener in the first half.  It was a song that was to carry us to glory in Copenhagen.  It has become an integral part of history. 

It’s time now for us to make some new history in Paris, and maybe with it a new anthem.