Ligue 1 Review | Troubling signs for PSG ahead of Arsenal semi-final | OneFootball

On Friday night, Paris Saint-Germain were just four games away from invincibility. Until that point, they had navigated 30 Ligue 1 fixtures without tasting a single defeat. It would have been a French record, no club has ever managed to go unbeaten across a full campaign. Only FC Nantes had come close in 1994/95 when they finished the season with one league defeat to their name.

Luis Enrique had made a point ahead of hosting OGC Nice to show where PSG’s focus lay. He said, “If someone assured me that losing to Nice would get me into the Champions League final, I’d sign up immediately.” In other words, the season would not be defined by invincibility but by European success.

Unfortunately for the Spaniard, a 3-1 defeat at the Parc des Princes did not provide a golden ticket to Munich, but it does leave certain questions for the club to answer before the first leg of their Champions League semi-final against Arsenal on Tuesday.

Set-piece weakness rears its ugly head

Luis Enrique will not be happy with any of the goals conceded against Nice, but the third goal will be the one that should concern him the most. Badredine Bouanani’s set-piece delivery from near the corner flag found Youssouf Ndayishimiye, who was able to lose his marker in the box and head home.

It’s a familiar story, as this season, Les Parisiens have made a habit of conceding from these kinds of situations. They have the joint third-worst record in the league for goals conceded from set-pieces, having allowed nine goals from 71 shots, according to Opta Analyst. This means that 12.86% of all set-piece shots PSG have faced this season have resulted in a goal.

That’s a concern when they’re facing an Arsenal side who have made set-pieces their speciality. It was the Achilles’ heel for PSG when they lost 2-0 to the Premier League side during the league phase of the Champions League, and there is a sense that little has been done to remedy this weakness, with Luis Enrique admitting as much,  “I haven’t planned to work on set pieces because I’ve known Arsenal for a very long time.”

PSG’s Champions League distraction

There have been some worrying signs for PSG ever since they threw away a 2-0 lead to Aston Villa at Villa Park. Les Parisiens were cruising in England, in total control of their tie with a 5-1 lead on aggregate, and playing the kind of football that has won them plaudits this season. However, they let control of the game slip away and allowed Villa to score three and push them to a nervy climax (3-2 on the night, 5-4 on aggregate).

This slip in concentration has not been remedied in Ligue 1, and PSG have looked like a team going through the motions. They laboured to a 2-1 win over relegation-threatened Le Havre AC before drawing 1-1 with FC Nantes on Tuesday. There is a sense that the squad have lost the rhythm that made them such a potent side across the two legs against Liverpool and the first leg against Villa.

The club have every ability to right this ship and refind the form that made them purr only a few weeks ago. However, it’s hard not to think that an obsession with Champions League glory has been the thing that has distracted the club and put that goal in jeopardy. The hunt for invincibility was treated as simply a record, but it could have been the way to maintain a sharpened squad before a tight European contest.

This week’s Ligue 1 subplots

GFFN | Nick Hartland