Odegaard can't afford another bad hair day... or Paris exit is cut 'n' dried

LOSING a semi-final in the Champions League would be bad enough - but now Arsenal face the prospect of being remembered as the Premier League team that finished third in a two-horse race.

- SIMON MULLOCK

The Gunners' season is threatening to implode - and you can be sure that all the old questions about whether boss Mikel Arteta has a team of serial bottlers will start to be dusted down.

What made this defeat worse, against a side that have now done the double over Arsenal this season, is that Arteta sent out the strongest team he could, including talisman Bukayo Saka (left). Despite the challenge of trying to overturn that damaging 1-0 first-leg defeat at the hands of Paris Saint-Germain looming on Wednesday night, the Gunners boss felt that he needed to make a statement of domestic intent here, even with the title already being celebrated in Liverpool.

It appeared to be going so well when Declan Rice added to his canon of quality goals by putting the home side ahead in the first half.

But Andoni Iraola's side enjoyed a famous win over the Gunners in the autumn- and they made it a double in their own quest for European qualification, with two goals in eight second-half minutes, from Dean Huijsen and Evanilson.