Arsenal's poor start the catalyst for PSG defeat

Arsenal started poorly against PSG, and the lone goal was enough for the visitors to win the first leg.

Arsenal fell to a 1-0 defeat to PSG in the first leg of the Champions League semi-final at the Emirates with Mikel Arteta's side paying the price for a poor start.

Ousmane Dembele opened the scoring after just four minutes with a well-taken shot that cannoned in off the upright to give the visitors the perfect start.

But it could have been a whole lot better, with PSG then missing three superb chances inside the first 25 minutes and had they been taken, the tie would have been over, much like the Real Madrid tie was when Arsenal blew them off the park.

Thankfully, the football gods were at the Emirates as the visitors missed all, and from there, Arsenal slowly grew into the game, and it too, missed several guilt-edged chances with Leandro Trossard, and Gabriel Martinelli the worst misses of the night.

But looking back on the tie overall, yes, the Gunners could have drawn, or even won the tie, but conversely, PSG could have been out of sight.

Arsenal's poor opening gifted PSG win

In a game of this magnitude, everything that to work, and the Gunners' first 20-odd minutes, weren't that at all.

Dembele's goal set the tone, and Arsenal struggled to contain its opponents, and after surviving the initial onslaught, the Gunners finally got a foothold in the game.

But it those first 20 minutes are what made things tough for Arsenal.

"The first 15-20 minutes, especially them scoring so early in a great combination, playing when the margins as so small, the finishing is unbelievable," Arteta said via arsenal.com. "And then we had especially one issue that we corrected after 15-20 minutes and we sustained that for the rest of the game, which I think turned the game around. If you want to win the Champions League final, you have to do something special and we're going to have to do something special in Paris to be there."

So heading into the second leg, starting fast is super important to get that goal back.

If the Gunners score first, then its game on, but if PSG get it, then a tough task becomes borderline impossible.

But at least Arteta knows what went wrong and it was that opening stanza that saw PSG get the ascendancy.

The Gunners have to make sure that doesn't happen in Paris, otherwise their Champions League dream will end.

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