Arsenal made PSG look ORDINARY, writes OLIVER HOLT after 2-0 win

The day before the game, Mikel Arteta relived some of the happy times he had spent as a young player at Paris Saint-Germain in the early 2000s.

He talked about his respect for the coach, Luis Fernandez, who gave him his first real chance as a young player and he talked about the joy of playing with Ronaldinho.

The two men were roommates for 18 months and it was part of his job, Arteta intimated, to keep the party animal in the brilliant Brazilian at bay.

Old habits die hard, it seems. Arteta was it again on Tueday night when PSG came to north London. There he was, once more, spoiling all the fun.

It was a miserable evening for Luis Enrique and his French champions as Arsenal swept them aside in the first half and kept them at bay in the second when they rallied.

It would be nice to say that it was Arteta and his players who partied all night long on the pitch but PSG made them work too hard for that, especially after the break.

But, after they opened this season’s Champions League campaign with a draw at Atalanta last month, this 2-0 victory made it a deeply satisfying night for Arsenal.

PSG did not wilt but Arsenal made them look ordinary and vulnerable for long spells. In the first half, Leandro Trossard and Bukayo Saka twisted their blood.

Arsenal were not at their best but they did not have to be. PSG may not be favourites to win the Champions League but they are counted among the contenders and Arsenal made beating them look relatively routine.

Arteta’s side play Shakhtar Donetsk next and can already approach the rest of the Champions League campaign with considerable optimism.

So much attention has been focussed on their domestic rivalry with Manchester City that their pretensions to win this competition are sometimes overlooked.

They deserve to be among the favourites. With City and Real Madrid, they, not PSG, look like a team to fear.

Under coach Luis Enrique, PSG have turned their back on the galactico culture that has guided much of their domestic success since the club was bought by the Qatari state more than a decade ago.

Gone is the era when PSG line-ups featured Lionel Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappe. All of them have departed now and Luis Enrique had made a point of trying to build a team rather than a collection of individuals.

That principle was underlined when he and his team arrived in London on Monday without Ousmane Dembele, the closest thing they have got left to a superstar, after he was banished by Luis Enrique after a disagreement between the pair.

PSG’s philosophy could not disguise Arsenal’s superiority, though. It was a slow, cagey start but even though PSG had more possession, there was a greater conviction and menace to Arsenal’s work.

After a quarter of an hour, Arsenal’s tempo and intent moved up a gear. Havertz escaped on the overlap down the right and slid a ball across the face of the goal that PSG hacked away but their resistance did not last much longer.

Leandro Trossard had also begun to look dangerous and after 20 minutes he accelerated through the PSG midfield and checked inside. He looked up, saw Havertz make a run and curled a brilliant cross into his path.

Havertz rose to meet it and even though he could sense the huge frame of Gianluigi Donnarumma thundering towards him to try to clear the danger, Havertz kept his eyes on the ball and nodded it past the goalkeeper as he punched thin air.

Seven minutes later, though, PSG nearly drew level. Their brilliant Portugal left back Nuno Mendes played a one-two with Bradley Barcola and unleashed a bending left-foot shot that curled away from David Raya and clipped the outside of the post.

Arsenal had another escape a minute later when PSG’s other full-back, Achraf Hakimi, beat Riccardo Calafiori for pace down the right and bore down on Raya. Hakimi tried to smash his shot through Raya at the near post but Raya was equal to it and deflected it behind for a corner.

Arsenal weathered PSG’s flurry of defiance and then went further ahead. Saka was fouled by Nuno Mendes on the touchline and the Arsenal winger took the free kick himself. When he whipped it into the near post, Gabriel Martinelli hurdled the ball, and Thomas Partey and Gabriel both tried to apply a finishing touch.

They both missed it. Donnarumma missed it, too, and the ball bounced into the back of the net. Arsenal’s players ran over to celebrate with Saka, who had begun to exert more and more influence on the game from the Arsenal right. PSG could not cope with him.

Arsenal missed a golden opportunity to put the game out of reach early in the second half when Havertz lifted a flick into the path of Martinelli. Martinelli had time to steady himself for his volley and even though he struck it sweetly, it was too close to Donnarumma, who clutched it at the second attempt.

A huge cheer rang around the ground midway through the half when Arsenal’s highly-rated summer signing, Mikel Merino, finally ran on to the pitch to make his long-awaited debut for his new club.

Merino had been injured soon after he arrived in England when he sustained a shoulder injury in training when Gabriel fell on him. His return to fitness was another boost for an Arsenal team that has made such a fine start to the season.

His introduction, though, coincided with an intense spell of PSG pressure. Joao Neves thudded a shot into the ground and it bounced over Raya and cannoned off the Arsenal crossbar. Soon after, Raya had to twist in mid-air to keep out a viciously swerving shot from Lee Kang-in. 

Arsenal were struggling to keep the ball now, constantly ceding possession to PSG, who were threatening to fight their way back into the game. Only a superb interception by William Saliba stopped substitute Randal Kolo Muani from sweeping the ball home with 15 minutes to go.

Arteta brought on Gabriel Jesus for Trossard in another attempt to inject fresh energy into his team and wrest back control but Arsenal soon had to survive a huge PSG appeal for a penalty after the ball bounced away from a challenge between Barcola and Saliba and hit Calafiori on the arm. The referee waved the appeals away.