Thierry Henry has claimed Paris Saint-Germain lack “match winners” after the departures of superstars Kylian Mbappe, Lionel Messi and Neymar.
And the Arsenal legend reckoned the French club’s 2-0 Champions League defeat at the Emirates Stadium was “normal”. PSG enjoyed the majority of possession against the Gunners and had more shots (10-6).
It follows their opening European win at home to Girona last month where they needed a late own goal from former Tottenham and Fulham goalkeeper Paulo Gazzaniga to sneak past the Spanish side.
Messi, Neymar and Mbappe have all now left the club - and coach Luis Enrique decided to leave Ousmane Dembele back in Paris for disciplinary reasons. And Henry told CBS Sports: “They don’t have that match-winner, that game winner, that they had in the past.
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"Yes the team is a bit more well-balanced, you can see there is an idea when they approach the other team, they know what they need to do but in and around the box, apart from Bradley Barcola, who was trying to do something, we didn’t see much.
“I think it is a different ball game when you have a (Marco) Verratti, when you have a (Ousmane) Dembélé, who could have been there but was punished. You don’t obviously have Mbappé. The team is well-balanced. They had the ball, a lot of possession but that is about it. That wasn’t enough.”
Fellow presenter Jamie Carragher was asked if beating the French champions was a “statement win” for an Arsenal side chasing a first Champions League trophy.
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He said: “I think in terms of the name of the club and the players that they have had in the past, if you are looking at the teams 11 against 11, it is still a good win.
“But I still think this is credit to Arsenal, when you see Arsenal are at home to PSG, very few people will think PSG will go there and win right now. That is not criticising PSG, it is more giving flowers to Arsenal.”
But Henry insisted: “I think that for me it is normal for me right now that Arsenal dispatch PSG at home. Especially this PSG side with no disrespect to PSG.” Another former Arsenal star Samir Nasri blamed Italian keeper Gianluigi Donnarumma for both goals - and slammed the tactics of Enrique.
"Gianluigi Donnarumma is his weakness, aerial play,” he told Canal+. “We see it in the image of what he does this evening. The second goal, I also blame him. For me, it's his fault, he puts his hands in front and the ball passes right by Okay, no one touches it. But the free kick is not hit hard.
"Luis Enrique has carte blanche in this club without having done anything! A No 9 is missing. We have the impression that they can play until tomorrow and that they will not score. His way of playing does not is not the right one. He does not adapt to his squad. He believes that he will copy what he did with Spain and Barça at PSG.”
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