Arsenal's bitter end.

When the final whistle blew at Parc des Princes, the harsh reality was confirmed: Arsenal lost to PSG with an aggregate score of 1-3 after two legs of the Champions League semi-final.

Mikel Merino failed to score on the day Arsenal were defeated by PSG.

The 1-2 defeat in France on the morning of May 8th, following a 0-1 loss at Emirates Stadium a week earlier, not only marked the end of the London team's European journey but also raised profound questions about the future of Mikel Arteta's project.

Spirit and reality - two sides of the same coin

Statistically, Arsenal's season was still commendable: a top-two finish in the Premier League and reaching the Champions League semi-finals – an achievement many other big clubs can only dream of. But football is a sport of concrete results, and Arsenal continued their long trophy drought.

The line between "almost" and "success" is sometimes very thin – but it's the line that separates great teams from those that only have "potential." Arsenal are probably learning this lesson now.

Former Arsenal legends Wayne Rooney and Clarence Seedorf pointed out Arsenal's "fear of winning" and "inability to overcome" after the first leg of the Champions League semi-final in London. Unfortunately, these observations were confirmed after the second leg in Paris.

Arsenal played like a team burdened by psychological pressure, not a team ready to make history. In the final minutes of the match in Paris, when they needed a goal to take the game into extra time, Arteta's team still lacked the decisiveness and the necessary risk-taking.

It's worth noting that Arsenal reached the Champions League semi-finals with only 14 top-class players for most of the season. This is both an admirable achievement and a warning about the fragility of their squad depth. But the problem is much deeper than that.

Arsenal ended the 2024/25 season without any trophies in all competitions.

Arsenal lack a truly world-class striker. That's no secret. While PSG spent hundreds of millions of euros overhauling their squad, getting rid of Messi, Neymar, and Kylian Mbappe to build a cohesive team, Arsenal continues to rely on half-hearted solutions for the number 9 position.

Kai Havertz and Mikel Merino have made contributions, but they are not strikers who can decide big matches with their goal-scoring instincts. During crucial periods, Havertz was sidelined by injury, while Merino also lacked the knack for playing as a makeshift striker.

Looking back at last summer, if Arteta and the Arsenal board had been more determined to sign a top-class striker – even Jean-Philippe Mateta, who is currently shining at Crystal Palace – perhaps they could have converted many draws into wins and challenged for the Premier League title in a more substantial way.

Arteta is too rigid.

A major weakness for Arsenal and Arteta is their lack of tactical flexibility in crucial matches. The London team has a clear, highly disciplined, and very strong style – but always strong in the same way.

This is good when facing weaker teams or even Real Madrid. However, when facing well-organized teams like PSG, that rigidity becomes a fatal weakness.

Now is the time for Arsenal to change and move forward.

In the first leg, PSG coach Luis Enrique cleverly drew Arsenal's defense deep and exploited the gaps between the lines. A week is not enough for Arteta to solve this problem. He boasts about courage and decisiveness, but sometimes what the team needs is creativity and flexibility in its approach, especially when plan A doesn't work.

Martin Ødegaard – Arsenal's creative soul – seems to have had some of his talent sacrificed to become a pressing machine up front. The team needs another creative talent to share the burden with him. Meanwhile, the arrival of Myles Lewis-Skelly at full-back is Arsenal's only tactical innovation this season – far too little for a team aiming for the top.

The defeat in Paris is not the end of Arteta's project, but it raises serious questions that need answering next summer. Arsenal will need to retain their best players and attract equally talented individuals to move forward. The decisions made in the upcoming transfer window will determine whether the team can move beyond the "almost" stage and become a true force.

Most importantly, Arteta must learn from the two defeats against PSG. It wasn't just bad luck or squad quality, but also a lack of flexibility and adaptability in crucial moments. Last season, the defeat against Bayern Munich in the quarter-finals also exposed similar problems.

For Arsenal, this is not the time for excuses. Now is the time for change – from tactics to mentality and team structure. The fact is, the Gunners have improved under Arteta. But the question now is no longer whether they can compete, but whether they can surpass themselves to win when the pressure is at its highest.

The defeat in Paris is not the end. It could be the beginning of a new chapter, if Arsenal and Arteta are willing to acknowledge and fix their core weaknesses. The season ended in Paris, but Arsenal's real journey may only have begun.

Source: https://znews.vn/doan-ket-cay-dang-cua-arsenal-post1551717.html