Arsenal given brutal ratings by L'Equipe for PSG win despite Enrique admission

Arsenal put in a solid display to overcome Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League – but they didn’t impress the French media.

The Gunners ran out 2-0 winners in north London on Tuesday night after netting two first-half goals. Kai Havertz beat Gianluigi Donnarumma to a cross from Leandro Trossard to open the scoring before the PSG keeper was bamboozled by Bukayo Saka’s free-kick, which benefited from the confusion of runners in his eyeline.

PSG had 65 per cent possession but failed to threaten, managing just 0.34 xG – the lowest in 69 Champions League matches for which statisticians Opta have data. Arsenal defended deep and were supremely organised, extending their unbeaten run to nine matches in all competitions this season thanks to a fifth clean sheet of the campaign.

Mikel Arteta was delighted with the performance of his side, who had been held to a 0-0 draw by Atalanta in their opening Champions League game of the season. But French newspaper L’Equipe stuck steadfastly to their trademark stingy ratings, giving the Arsenal team an average of 5.8/10.

Goal scorers Saka and Havertz were the best Arsenal players, according to the paper, who awarded them marks of 7. But Gabriel, William Saliba and goalkeeper David Raya were only worthy of 6s, despite keeping PSG at bay, while Jurrien Timber and Riccardo Calafiori got 5s.

It was a similar story in midfield, where Trossard (6), Gabriel Martinelli (6) Declan Rice (6) and Thomas Partey (5) were given middling scores. To be fair, PSG were rated much lower at an average of 3.6, following their first defeat of the season.

PSG manager Luis Enrique was magnanimous in defeat. “Our rivals tonight were much better in terms of intensity, in terms of pressure. They won every duel,” he said in his post-match press conference.

“Effectively, after the second goal Arsenal scored, they decided to defend a bit more deeply, take a fewer risks. Arsenal deserved their victory. Really, it’s impossible to come out of a game with a positive result if you don’t manage to win any duel on the pitch.”

When asked about the performance, Arteta gave a similar assessment. “How determined and brave we were, the quality that we showed against this opponent to be so dominant and score the two goals,” he said. “We wanted a different second half probably. To continue being that dominant and be a bit more secure with the ball than we were.

“We had three chances to score the third goal and that probably would have killed the game. We didn't. But credit to them. The changes that they made and the adaptations that they made forced us to play in a different area of the pitch where we had more problems to win territory and control the game the way we did in the first half.”