Arsenal Earns a Champions League Draw, but P.S.G. Is the One Moving Forward

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Arsenal’s Francis Coquelin, third from right, headed the ball during a Champions League game against Paris St.-Germain. P.S.G. created a raft of chances but missed all but the first. Credit Etienne Laurent/European Pressphoto Agency
PARIS — As the overblown strains of Handel’s “Zadok the Priest” blasted out over Parc des Princes, and as the players from Paris St.-Germain and Arsenal emerged into the bright lights of the Champions League once more, a vast red banner was unfurled on one side of the stadium.

Whatever doubts remain about Paris St.-Germain’s ability to compete with Europe’s established elite on the field, when it comes to preprepared, officially authorized fan displays, the club is very much a market leader.

P.S.G.’s banners are always faintly artistic, ordinarily featuring a stylized version of the Eiffel Tower. There is often a hashtag — everything is content in 21st-century soccer — and there is always a slogan, usually in English, some sort of statement of intent.

The catchphrase chosen for Tuesday evening’s game, which ended in a 1-1 draw, was a classic of the genre — simple, straightforward, powerful. “It begins here.”

The problem, the club’s more freethinking supporters might have suggested, is that they know exactly where it ends, too: in the quarterfinals, as soon as one of the teams that P.S.G.’s Qatari owners are so desperate to emulate comes into view.

P.S.G. is now the perennial French champion, the Ligue 1 race rendered a procession by the unrivaled wealth at the club’s disposal. But a place among the very best in Europe has proved elusive so far. Manchester City stood in the way last season, a change, at least, from what had become something of a habit: being knocked out by Barcelona.

Still, P.S.G. has it better than Arsenal. The Gunners’ fans know where their journey ends, too: in the round of 16. Not since 2010 has Manager Arsène Wenger been able to guide his team even into the last eight. Strictly speaking, Arsenal is now one rung below P.S.G. in European soccer’s intensely hierarchical food chain.

Just as important, P.S.G. seems to be trying to do something to change its fate. Laurent Blanc, a coach who had led the team to three straight French championships, was relieved of his position in June, his failure against a mediocre Manchester City team last season deemed an unforgivable missed opportunity. In his stead came not just Unai Emery, a Spanish coach who had won three consecutive Europa League titles with Sevilla, but also a new approach.

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Ever since Qatar Sports Investments took control of the team in 2011, P.S.G.’s guiding principle has seemed to be that success will follow fame. A host of high-profile players were brought in on lucrative contracts, most egregiously David Beckham and most notably Zlatan Ibrahimovic. It was a phenomenon recognizable from Real Madrid: thinly veiled Galáctico thinking.

Last season, though, represented a watershed. P.S.G.’s chairman, Nasser al-Khelaifi, decreed that the celebrity approach was not working and that a complete about-face was required. Ibrahimovic, whose contract had ended, departed for Manchester United on a free transfer. There was an attempt to persuade the Barcelona superstar Neymar to replace him, but when that failed, P.S.G. decided simply to hand striker Edinson Cavani the chance to step into his shoes.

More important, Emery’s appointment heralded a change of direction. Blanc had been appointed and retained only because more high-profile candidates, including José Mourinho, had proved out of reach. That Blanc was eventually replaced by Emery is significant.

Emery is not a famous face. He is not especially glamorous. He preaches hard work and little else. He does not indulge superstars, and he does not sell himself as the guardian of a philosophy. His arrival represented a new phase in P.S.G.’s development: Instead of trying to compete with Real Madrid for stardust, the club would seek to harness the sort of discipline and dedication that has transformed Atlético Madrid.

The revolution will not happen overnight. At times against Arsenal, Emery had good reason to be pleased: P.S.G. created a raft of chances. But it missed all but the first of them. Cavani scored on that one — on a glancing header from a Serge Aurier cross in the first minute — and then wasted another four.

It is, though, a revolution. Arsenal, by contrast, seems to find ever more exciting ways of standing still. For a while, as P.S.G. ran riot Tuesday, it seemed that Arsenal’s first European game of the new season would serve as a preview and a spoiler for its Champions League campaign as a whole: falling behind to a better rival before launching a spirited but ultimately futile rally.

An Alexis Sánchez goal in the 77th minute ensured that was not the case. Wenger said the point the team earned was proof of Arsenal’s “resilience,” but he is not a fool. He knows that his team was anything but resilient at Parc des Princes, that his players conceded far too many chances for that label to fit. Against a better team, or even against a better version of this P.S.G. team, this might have been a rout.

There was, certainly, no proof that this season will be any different from the last six. Arsenal might be older, wiser — Wenger suggested on the eve of the game that his squad was now at the perfect age to compete in Europe — but there is no sign that this is a team improving with age, at least not on the Champions League stage.

For both teams, this is where it began. Arsenal may already have a sinking feeling that it will end at the same point as ever.