Mikel Arteta had the audacity to call it an “individual moment”.
He was talking about the only goal in Paris Saint-Germain’s 1-0 win at the Emirates in the Champions League semi-final first leg.
Inside four minutes, Ousmane Dembele met Khvicha Kvaratskhelia’s cutback with a first-time finish, curling around bodies and in off David Raya’s left post. It encapsulated the No 9 instincts that Luis Enrique has coaxed out of Dembele after repositioning him from a winger.
Dembele celebrates completing a 26-pass move (Michael Steele/Getty Images)
The build-up, though, was something else. A 26-pass move, which — since Opta started collecting data in 2003-04 — is the longest goal-scoring sequence in a Champions League game by any French team, and the most expansive move Arsenal have conceded from.
Speaking to UK broadcaster Amazon Prime afterwards, Luis Enrique simplified it as “playing the way we play” and midfielder Vitinha said the move “shows the dynamic that we have”. The pattern bore so many similarities to Dembele’s goal at Anfield in the round of 16.
It is all about what PSG do around and away from the ball, and how Luis Enrique staggers players as not just passing options but to manipulate the Arsenal block — essential for how compact and aggressive Arteta’s side are.
PSG’s structure, at the base and sides, is consistent. Left-back Nuno Mendes tucks in to make a back three, while right-back Achraf Hakimi pushes upfield to overload the last line. The wingers stay high and wide.
Hakimi’s positioning kept left-winger Gabriel Martinelli deeper and further from Marquinhos; Vitinha realised early that Martin Odegaard was man-marking him and moved between central spaces and the left channel to move the Norwegian and create space; No 8s Fabian Ruiz and Joao Neves advanced to pin back Arsenal midfielders Declan Rice and Mikel Merino.
This meant the distance between Arsenal players was too big to support Leandro Trossard when he initiated the press. PSG risked being open and overcommitted if they lost the ball, but trusted their technicians.
Compare that to PSG’s 2-0 defeat at Arsenal in October in the league phase, when Dembele was dropped for disciplinary reasons and Lee Kang-in played as a false nine. Arsenal pressed them into corners, and too often all three of PSG’s central midfielders (yellow dots) were in deep positions on the same line.
With better staggering and positioning, this time they were able to use Bukayo Saka’s defensive aggression against Arsenal.
Marquinhos’ lateral pass triggers Odegaard to press, and Arsenal’s central midfielders lock on. Saka anticipates the next pass to Mendes and jumps.
PSG’s double movements are orchestrated perfectly here. Fabian expects the ball into Kvaratskhelia so runs beyond to be a second pass off the Georgia international. Like clockwork, Vitinha goes the opposite way.
This pulls Rice and Merino in opposite directions and vacates the centre circle for spare-man Dembele — no Arsenal centre-back wants to advance that far. Mendes breaks the press with a pass into the No 9.
This is how he ends up on the half turn, under no pressure, and PSG have a six-v-six in Arsenal’s half. The maximal width is there, with wingers outside Arsenal’s full-backs, and two-v-ones in PSG’s favour as Hakimi and Fabian are supporting.
As Dembele came deeper, Joao Neves took the responsibility of stretching play.
Fabian’s run pulls Jurrien Timber narrow and lets Dembele find Kvaratskhelia in space. As he faces Timber up, PSG’s two penalty-box options are a No 8 (Fabian) and their right-back (Hakimi).
Saka, having committed so high to press Mendes, is yet to recover, so Rice opts to leave Dembele and double-up on Kvaratskhelia — a bad decision in hindsight, but considering how Timber struggled defending against the Georgia international, it was a sensible percentage play.
Kvaratskhelia recognises the space, and pulls it back for Dembele rather than looking for a back-post ball towards three PSG team-mates. A scrambling Saka runs into the referee.
That was PSG’s sixth cutback (by The Athletic’s definition) goal this Champions League campaign, the most of any team in the competition and more than they managed in the past three European seasons combined (five).
It was Dembele’s eighth Champions League goal in 2024-25 (matching Kylian Mbappe’s best-ever European seasons at PSG, in 2023-24 and 2020-21) and 33rd in all competitions. Technically-accomplished, positionally-flexible, increasingly clinical (and French), he encapsulates this new-era PSG.
For every main character there is a supporting cast, something Joao Neves spoke about in an interview with The Athletic, explaining PSG’s rotations: “We have places on the pitch where there always has to be someone there. If there’s no one there, you might be the closest one to do that role.
“Sometimes you’re close to the ball and you’re giving a passing line, but it’s not for you, so you have to go away and find another space. Sometimes we score a goal, and you are not involved but if you don’t do what you’re supposed to do (positionally), that doesn’t happen.”
Luis Enrique has them so well-coached and picks such settled sides for European games that they can play fluidly and still sustain their structure. He has made only six starting XI changes in the seven knockout games (after 17 from matchday two through eight in the league phase).
11 – For the first time since September 2023, Paris SG have fielded the same starting 11 in two consecutive competitive matches (v Nice last Friday and v Arsenal tonight). Risk? #ARSPSG pic.twitter.com/Es5pu0SZtf
— OptaJean (@OptaJean) April 29, 2025
Here, Doue and Kvaratskhelia switch wings, and PSG go round the press when Saka jumps to Mendes. Rice and Timber neither get tight nor switch marking responsibilities quickly enough, so Dembele — from a deeper starting position — can make the diagonal run for Doue’s straight pass.
Again, PSG have two midfielders on the last line, plus Hakimi.
A different move from the same structure: Dembele has dropped in, Martinelli is watching Hakimi and Neves is up against William Saliba.
Fabian pulls wide, and, when Saka sprints towards Mendes, Willian Pacho sees the opportunity.
The centre-back steps inside, changing the picture. Now the left-footed pass to Fabian is open, and Rice has left Fabian as he does not want to be pulled wide. PSG work a triangle with Kvaratskhelia rolling inside, and they already have a four-v-three on the far side of the pitch to switch out to.
Dembele is the link between the two wingers — Neves has sprinted forwards — and the move ends with Doue cutting inside and shooting on target.
There was a scything move late on involving substitutes Bradley Barcola and Goncalo Ramos, where a one-two between them (after a Barcola third-man run from a wide triangle between him, Neves and Hakimi) put the France international in and he fired wide when one-v-one against Raya.
The performance and result are significant progress. Luis Enrique lamented at the Emirates in October that PSG “knew they (Arsenal) would press us high and we couldn’t cope with that pressure”.
They did more than cope this time.
(Header photo: Adrian Dennis/AFP via Getty Images)