Gunners eye emotional high

Arsenal skipper Martin Odegaard has urged his team to ‘stick together’ after their recent failures as they aim to defy the odds in Wednesday’s decisive Champions League semi-final second leg showdown with Paris Saint-Germain. 

The Gunners head to the Parc des Princes faced with the daunting task of having to beat the French champions to reach the Champions League final for the second time in their history. Mikel Arteta’s side trail by a goal after Ousmane Dembele secured the win for the Parisians in the first leg in north London.

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PSG have already eliminated Premier League champions Liverpool in the Round-of-16 and Aston Villa in the quarter-finals, after beating Manchester City in the group phase. Arsenal are on the brink of becoming PSG’s latest English scalp this season.

Their preparations for the second leg in Paris could not have gone much worse as they slumped to a 1-2 home defeat against Bournemouth in the Premier League on Saturday. 

Arteta said Arsenal were full of ‘rage and anger’ after two painful losses and urged his side to use their frustration as fuel against Luis Enrique’s team — a sentiment mirrored by Gunners captain Odegaard.

“We’re disappointed now, but we have to move on and be strong and stick together to prepare for a massive game,” Odegaard said. 

“When you’re disappointed, angry and frustrated, you can use all those emotions vs PSG. We know what we’re playing for,” he added.

Arsenal will be hoping to recreate their 1994 Cup Winners’s Cup success. The Gunners were underdogs in the semi-final 31 years ago against a PSG side featuring George Weah and David Ginola, but emerged with a 2-1 aggregate victory. If Arsenal can overturn the deficit against this iteration of PSG, it will go down as one of the greatest results in the club’s history.

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