Paris Saint-Germain boss, Luis Enrique has delivered an honest Arsenal verdict before their Champions League semi-final first leg at Emirates Stadium, next Tuesday.
The French champions travel to north London on Tuesday with Mikel Arteta’s side visiting the Parc Des Princes for the second leg in 13 days time. Barcelona and Inter Milan contest the other semi-final with all four teams vying for a spot in the final at Allianz Arena.
While the main focus is on Europe, Arsenal still have some Premier League games to play with one of those against Crystal Palace, brought forward due to their FA Cup involvement, contested Wednesday night.
It wasn’t exactly the best preparation as the game ended 2-2, but they do now have an extra 48 hours over PSG for rest and recovery. That is because Enrique’s side take on Nice in Ligue 1 action today with the 54-year-old holding his press conference before that game on Thursday and the topic of Arsenal was unsurprisingly brought up.
Asked if he started analysing PSG’s upcoming opponent, he said: “No, because I already know Arsenal perfectly.” I’ve done it for a very long time. It’s a team I’ve followed. As for the rest, the qualities we have and the flaws we have are the same.
“We can improve, yes, but if you focus on the negative, that’s your problem. We don’t do that. Of course we want to improve, but there’s no perfect team, and we won’t be either.”
Despite how impressive they have been in this season’s competition, this will be Arsenal’s first Champions League semi-final appearance in 16 years. PSG meanwhile, were beaten by Borussia Dortmund at this stage in the last campaign with Enrique admitting his team have made some huge changes in the last 12 months.
“There’s been a lot of growth in the team,” he added. “The team was very young, now we’re coming into it with more confidence. We’re experiencing a rather strange end to the season, of course, in the league, but there are important things to accomplish.
“We’re reaching a great moment in the season because we’re obsessed with the Champions League. We’re going to have a great version of PSG against Arsenal. Nice is a good step towards that meeting.”
Rotation for that Ligue 1 game is expected with Ousmane Dembele and Achraf Hakimi the key players to have already been rested. The likes of Vitinha, Joao Neves, Fabian Ruiz or Marquinhos could now be given the same treatment after all four played the full 90 minutes against Nantes on Tuesday.
