- The legal case against Uefa will be decided this week, and football will explode
- Arsenal v Leicester. Arsenal caught out again by the “other”
By Tony Attwood
Arsenal’s record against PSG, whom we play on Tuesday in the Champions League, is not good, but it is certainly better than you might expect unless you already have an intermate knowledge of the statistics.
On the bad side, in four games against PSG Arsenal have only won once, which was a Cup Winners’ Cup match in 1994 at home. But on the good side, PSG have never beaten Arsenal, for the other three games, including two in 2016 in the Champions League, have been draws. Unfortunately, in 2016 the draw at home was 2-2, giving PSG two away goals, and through they went to the next round.
However, we must also remember that the two draws with PSG happened five years after Qatar Sports Investments bought to club and covered around £15m in debts and a similar amount in losses from the 2010/11 season.
And we can see what an impact that had. In 2009/10 PSG came 13th in the league,, in 2010/11 they were 4th,, in 2011/12 they were second.
In the next dozen years, they won the league ten times and came second twice. In five of those years they did the treble winning not just the league but the Coupe de France and the Coupe de la Ligue as well. In short football in France is as tedious as the Premier League with ManC.
But it is not all sweetness and light for PSG nor instant doom and gloom for Arsenal for as Transfermarkt has pointed out with “€1.94b spent,” they have reached “just one final – PSG have failed to turn financial dominance into European success” noting them as one of “the continent’s most underperforming clubs,”
But of course, they are top of the league, because, well, they are always top of the league. By now it is probably enshrined in the Fifth Republic’s constitution. Here’s the league table… PSG’s one slip was against fourth-placed Reims with whom they drew.
|
Club
|
P
|
|
|
|
|
a
|
|
|
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
6
|
5
|
1
|
0
|
20
|
5
|
15
|
16
|
|
|
|
6
|
5
|
1
|
0
|
12
|
3
|
9
|
16
|
|
|
|
6
|
4
|
1
|
1
|
15
|
7
|
8
|
13
|
|
|
|
6
|
3
|
2
|
1
|
10
|
8
|
2
|
11
|
|
|
|
6
|
3
|
1
|
2
|
11
|
7
|
4
|
10
|
It would be a total shock if the club did not get through the first stage in the Champs League however, since they have been runners up twice in the last five years and never been knocked out in the group stage.
The biggest name at the club of late has been Kylian Mbappe but he left PSG this last summer to go to Real Madrid on a free, after playing for PSG for seven years. Last season he scored 44 goals including 27 in the league.
So in many ways, PSG is indeed the French ManC – although they can pull one or two surprises. For example, when Mbappe left PSG for once didn’t go out and buy the most expensive player on the market. Instead, they seem to have planned for the departure allowing left winger Bradley Barcola to step up as the main goalscorer.
Indeed as can be seen from the table above, PSG are not short of goals. But the unwavering sameness of the French league looks set to continue with PSG almost certain to win the league, and with them coming second being seen by the club as an utter disaster. It is indeed in France exactly the same as has been allowed to happen in the Premier League.
But of course, PSG always need to be in the news, which is hard when the same club wins the league all the time and there are no equivalents to the 115 charges against ManC to keep the show grinding along. So instead, we have had “Gripping PSG Féminines Scandal Subject Of New Eight-Part BBC Podcast” as Forbes put it. That tells the story of the “criminal investigation which is still ongoing involving two team-mates within the then French women’s league champions Paris Saint-Germain.”
So we can take it there is always something going on at PSG.
