Thierry Henry provides PSG v Arsenal Champions League second leg verdict, ‘I said it before…’

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Arsenal have a mountain to climb in the second leg of their Champions League semi-final tie against Paris Saint-Germain.

PSG ran out 1-0 winners at the Emirates in the first leg, courtesy of Ousmane Dembele’s fourth-minute strike from the edge of the box.

The Gunners responded to a rough opening 30 minutes and settled in the game in N5, with Gabriel Martinelli spurning two glorious chances to draw the North Londoners level.

While winning at the Parc des Princes will be a tough task for Arsenal, PSG are monitoring Dembele after the forward appeared to suffer a hamstring injury, with this potential loss a detrimental blow to the French Champions.

• READ MORE: What the French press are now saying about Myles Lewis-Skelly after watching him during Arsenal vs PSG

Thierry Henry says Arsenal are ‘still in the tie’ ahead of PSG second leg

Recovering from a shell-shocked opening period, Arsenal produced a valiant performance from the 30th minute onwards, although they lacked the offensive firepower to keep PSG under the cosh late in the game.

Mikel Arteta’s men will need to offer a lot more in the final third next week in Paris, while keeping the back door secure.

Speaking on CBS Golazo after the game, Arsenal legend Thierry Henry claimed PSG were ‘far superior’ to the Gunners in the first leg, but insisted that the tie isn’t over.

“It’s going to be the same thing again, like I said,” Henry said.

“There’s another tie, you never know what’s going to happen. Paris Saint-Germain last year against Barcelona, everyone thought they were dead. Then Araujo gets sent off after I don’t know how many minutes it was.

“Then suddenly PSG go on and win the game really easily away against Barcelona. Anything can happen. I said it before, they didn’t score that second goal. You’re still in the tie, now I’m going to repeat everything that I said.

“PSG were far superior for me in this game, so a lot needs to be changed in order for Arsenal to make sure they can beat PSG on the day. It’s going to be a different ball game.”

Arsenal v PSG statistics

While Henry felt PSG were far superior at the Emirates, the statistics don’t necessarily reflect that.

The Ligue 1 side undoubtedly dominated the early part of the game, but Arsenal came into it from there and created the better chances.

The game state being in PSG’s favour certainly played into it, with Arteta’s team needing to chase a goal, but the gap between the two sides was nowhere near as significant as Henry thought it was.

Arsenal had just one fewer shot, one more shot on target and accumulated more expected goals throughout the 90 minutes.

Possession was also almost equally split, with the Gunners clearly very much on PSG’s level for most of the encounter.

They did all this while Martin Odegaard was poor, so if Arteta can elicit a lot more from his captain, there’s no reason Arsenal can’t reverse the scoreline in the second leg.