Mentality problem? Arteta can't afford a meek defeat in Paris

There is a fair chance Arsenal will not overhaul Paris-Saint Germain in the Champions League tonight. But if they do go out, the manager needs signs of progress in his team

- Barney Ronay

Is this thing...still on? After last week's strangely enervated first-leg performance against Paris Saint-Germain at the Emirates Stadium it has been tempting to get a bit ahead of things, to see Arsenal's season as already a zombie entity, still out there walking around the place, limbs twitching, skinny hands rattling the perimeter fence, not exactly dead, but not too far from undead.

On Monday night, even, Paris police declared this evening's return leg at the Parc des Princes an event "of no particular concern", as in no great flashpoints, no obvious tension. Just don't tell Mikel Arteta that. And not just because rumours of the death of Arsenal's season are widely exaggerated. There is even a nightmare scenario available to the club's supporters, a product of the deep banter-verse, where Arsenal don't make the Champions League next season but Tottenham do. All they need to do is keep losing while others win, and while slack, stitched-together Spurs bundle through Bodø/Glimt and a beta Manchester United, thereby banking their £100m jackpot while finishing 16th in the league.

If this remains a highly unlikely combination of events, the current semi-final is still very much alive. Even a steamrollering 1-0 defeat is still just a 1-0 defeat. All that is required for Arsenal to reach a Champions League final is victory against a team they have already beaten in the group stage this season, who have their own demons still to conquer, and who are perhaps just a tiny bit too pleased with their own five-month makeover from despot's vanity project into avatars of humble, diligent systems-ball.