Arsenal's failure in Paris ends disappointing season

This dispiriting season for Arsenal essentially ends as it should: all of the campaign’s issues inevitably combining for one last disappointment.

- MIGUEL DELANEY

There was no final step to Munich and that will fairly be cast as a backward step overall.

Paris Saint-Germain have instead made a huge stride in becoming the club that Qatar so desperately want them to be. They beat their own ghosts here as much as they beat Arsenal 21 on the night and 3-1 on aggregate.

The actual football team are brilliant and would be worthy champions of Europe in a pure sporting sense, even if such warm words should not extend to the sportswashing project that the ownership represent. That should always be mentioned, although a battle-hardened Internazionale might yet have another say about how all of this finishes.

Arsenal’s input to the season ultimately ends with deflation in Paris, just as it did in their most memorable Champions League campaign so far, in 2006.

They couldn’t make history, as Mikel Arteta wanted, and the future remains tantalisingly out of reach. That will no doubt be the biggest focus in this match’s fallout.

The truth is, there were too many present issues, and you can almost track them all from front to back. Literally.

Arsenal started the game well, with some clever moves. PSG genuinely looked unsettled, and were making some dreadful decisions. It was just as well that Gianluigi Donnarumma also made some sensational saves.

For all the criticism the goalkeeper has received, he has been one of the decisive players in this Champions League so far. The two saves early on, especially from Martin Odegaard’s drive, felt crucial in terms of the match’s emotional shift.

Again, though, Arsenal had no one following in.