As a cri de coeur, Mikel Arteta’s video message to Arsenal fans packed quite the punch. Staring straight down the lens, and jabbing his finger in the style of Lord Kitchener to tell supporters how much their club needed them, he demanded that “every pass, every tackle, every run, every decision” be cheered so that his players could feel the connection. For such rhetoric to work, though, you tend to need some of the ball in the first place. And as Arsenal found themselves outsmarted and outmanoeuvred at every turn by Paris St-Germain, the manager’s tub-thumping achieved the opposite of the intended effect, with a delirious pre-match atmosphere curdling by the final whistle into one of bitterness and regret.
Mikel Arteta learnt the hard way that Arsenal cannot confect a fortress
