ARSENE WENGER used to moan until the cows came home about the impossibility of competing with state-owned oil-rich clubs.
Mikel Arteta simply gets on with it – and with increasingly impressive levels of success.
Having given Abu Dhabi’s Manchester City a serious fright in a 2-2 draw at the Etihad nine days ago, here were the Arsenal strolling to victory against the pride of Qatar, Paris St Germain.
It helped that PSG keeper Gianluigi Donnarumma went a long way to gifting first-half goals to Kai Havertz and Bukayo Saka.
But Arteta’s side – unbeaten in four against Pep Guardiola’s City by the way – are looking increasingly comfortable back on the Champions League stage which they vacated during Wenger’s latter years.
This was a battle between arguably the two most famous European clubs never to have ruled the continent – and on this evidence, Arsenal look far closer than the French champions to finally lifting Old Big Ears.
In Havertz, who capitalised on Donnarumma’s first blunder to head the opener, they have a high-class forward who has already scored the winner in a Champions League Final.
And there are many more of Arteta’s side looking unfazed at the top table, not least Saka, who was mesmerising at times.
There was a lot to savour for the Gooners here, including a debut for midfielder Mikel Merino, the £32million summer signing from Real Sociedad who missed the start of the season through injury and arrived as a second-half sub.
And the central-defensive duo of Gabriel and William Saliba are a magnificent pair of killjoys, snuffing out any semblance of fun for opposition forwards.
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Arsenal are unbeaten in 14 matches in all competitions now and the biggest compliment of all is that they barely seem to be missing their injured skipper Martin Odegaard.
PSG may have lacked the Galactico quality of their Messi-Neymar-Mbappe years, and the format of this monster group stage may be baffling, but this was a competition Arsenal missed for six seasons until last term and so there was still a buzz in the watery north London air.
The black-clad Parisien ultras were trying to look scary in their corner of the Clock End, there were bright orange pyrotechnics and the strangulated tones of the Champions League anthem blared out.
After years of Thursday-night Europa fayre, the Arsenal are getting used to being back among the elite.
PSG are a younger, better-balanced and more serious side these days and boss Luis Enrique had axed Ousmane Dembele from his matchday squad for a disciplinary breach.
That indicated a change in dressing-room dynamics since the days when egomaniac players ruled the roost at the Parc des Princes.
Early on, they were making it difficult for Arteta’s side, although Saka did fire narrowly over after Arsenal’s impressive new full-back Riccardo Calafiori had darted inside to tee him up.
Havertz had just squandered a decent opening, created by Saka and the marauding Jurrien Timber, when he opened the scoring on 20 minutes.
Leandro Trossard supplied a wicked centre from deep on the left and Donnarumma panicked, straying off his line and flapping, as Havertz escaped his marker Pacho and netted with a straightforward header.
Havertz is often referred to as a false nine but the German has many of the attributes of a very actual centre-forward, along with so much else.
For Donnarumma – the keeper who broke English hearts in the 2021 Euros final shoot-out – it had not been a happy start, after he’d already received treatment following a collision with Gabriel Martinelli.
The French supporters – many of them as topless as Geordies in the chill drizzle – kept on bouncing and hollering, and their team threatened a response.
Nuno Mendes arrowed a shot against the foot of the post, then the lightning quick Achraf Hakimi tore down the right, cut inside and forced David Raya to save with his legs at the near post.
So Arsenal’s second goal was both against the run of play and an absolute fluke – not that any of the Emirates faithful could have cared less.
Saka won a free-kick, by the touchline, then delivered a low inswinger, which Martinelli, Gabriel and Thomas Partey all went for and all missed. But so, too, did Donnarumma.
Perhaps it was all another stroke of genius from Arsenal’s set-piece genius Nico Jover. Or perhaps it was utterly freakish.
After that gift, Saka really began to purr, bringing out the Elvis hips, toasting his full-back and centring for Trossard, only for Donnarumma to suddenly remember that he is an elite goalkeeper.
At half-time, Arteta replaced Timber with Jakub Kiwior and soon his side almost conjured a gem of a third goal – Trossard to Havertz, who chipped a pass to Martinelli, who volleyed too close to Donnarumma.
PSG had their moments – Kang-in Lee shooting into the turf and up onto the crossbar before a decent penalty shout for handball against Calafiori fell on deaf ears.
But usually Arsenal’s back four were there, relishing the dirty work, bumping chests and fists, keeping the sheet clean.
Wenger was wrong. There is a way to compete with the state-owned super-rich. It’s just a lot of damned hard work.
