The 7,000 minutes difference - why PSG could have edge over Arsenal

1 week ago 3 min read 19
Sincity Press Brief

Why Paris St-Germain will be going into Saturday's Champions League final against Arsenal with one advantage.

Some of the numbers for idiosyncratic players are eye-catching.

Les Parisiens' nine skipper Marquinhos has started 14 of those European games – the aforesaid fig of full appearances helium made successful the league (11 starts, 3 arsenic a substitute).

From 13 February to 19 April, the decorated Brazil defender didn't spot a azygous infinitesimal of league action, remaining an unused sub successful 7 successive games. He played each infinitesimal of the holders' six Champions League fixtures successful that timeframe.

Ballon d'Or holder Ousmane Dembele completed 90 minutes successful the league lone erstwhile successful 22 appearances. Fellow guardant Khvicha Kvaratskhelia played for the duration conscionable doubly successful 28 matches.

On 12 May, Dembele controversially won the Ligue 1 player-of-the-season grant for the 2nd twelvemonth successful a row, registering 10 goals and 7 assists.

He started a specified 11 league games (nine astatine the clip of the award), featuring successful 22 retired of a imaginable 34 overall, though a succession of wounded problems did origin him to miss 10 of those.

Luis Enrique's argumentation of rotation – helium utilized 28 players successful league fixtures versus Arteta's 25 – did travel astatine immoderate cost, albeit not a telling one.

Three of their six league defeats – against Marseille successful September, Monaco successful November and Lyon successful April – came instantly aft Champions League ties.

Midfielder Warren Zaire-Emery played much league minutes than anyone other successful the PSG squad with 2,453. Six Arsenal players clocked up much than that.

The conception that England's apical formation is the champion successful Europe is not purely down to Anglocentric bias; Uefa's relation nine coefficients fertile the Premier League arsenic the continent's apical division, with Ligue 1 fifth.

It should beryllium said that PSG played a mammoth 58 games past play en way to a superb four-trophy haul that included a maiden Champions League occurrence successful which they overcame Arsenal 3-1 connected aggregate successful the semi-final. The Ligue 1 run is besides 4 games shorter than the Premier League's, owing to its 18-team format.

Regardless, Arsenal's cardinal players person undoubtedly been putting a displacement in. Goalkeeper David Raya had played each infinitesimal of the play until helium was rested connected the last time against Crystal Palace with the rubric already successful the bag.

Declan Rice, William Saliba, Gabriel and Martin Zubimendi person besides started astatine slightest 30 league games for the northbound London club, thing lone Zaire-Emery tin accidental for their opponents (the Gunners' Jurrien Timber, who has been injured since mid-March and remains a immense uncertainty for the final, inactive managed much minutes than him).

Of the 10 players with the astir league minutes for either nine this season, conscionable two, Zaire-Emery and Illia Zabarnyi, play for the Paris outfit.

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