Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
Arguably the biggest clash of the opening Champions League gameweek is French heavweights PSG playing host to Arsenal. Laurent Blanc’s failure to deliver a trophy at this level ultimately cost him his job at the end of last season and now it’s time for three time Europa League winner Unai Emery to try his luck.
The post Zlatan era in Paris hasn’t quite got off to the best of starts as PSG find themselves in 4th place after four matches. Friday night saw them throw away two points at home against Saint-Etienne thanks to a late equaliser, it seems as Unai Emery is still adjusting to life in the French Capital.
Arsenal were slightly fortuitous to be awarded a last minute penalty at home to Southampton which subsequently gave them all three points. It’s now back to back wins in the league for The Gunners and all of a sudden it’s not quite the crisis at The Emirates that everyone was painting it to be.
Arsenal always tend to make light work of the group stages before failing away in the Round of 16, a win in Paris would get themselves off to a perfect start but they need to make sure they do the hard work after Christmas if they are to make any real progress.
Last season saw Arsenal lose their first two Champions League matches and left themselves an uphill struggle to reach the knockout stages. In fairness they did end up qualifying for the Round of 16 the hard way but then there hard work was undone as they fell at the might of Barcelona losing 5-1 on aggregate.
If The Gunners can come away with a point from the Stade De France then they will consider that a very good point earned and with PSG not quite firing on all cylinders then they will definitely fancy their chances. I have a feeling they sneak a draw here, I’ll go for a share of the points.
