PSG’s Positional Structure and Attacking Principles against Arsenal. 3 1 Rest defence with Vitinha dropping in front of the back three. The back three can be formed by different players, but in this case Mendes forms it so Ruiz & Hakimi could stay higher. PSG tried to create fast wide combinations to break Arsenal’s block using their wide diamond structures, which eventually rewarded them with a penalty. The striker position is often left empty during build-up phases. And when PSG progress higher, Dembele moves back into the striker space. Very fluid positional structure, with players given a lot of freedom to rotate and move between positions, while still following the team’s attacking principles. Full-backs either pushed high or inverted into the pockets.

PSG’s very aggressive man-to-man press forced Arsenal to play long, as they did not feel comfortable building through PSG’s pressure. Because of this, Arsenal struggled to gain any real control in possession, even for short periods, and the possession was heavily dominated by PSG.