PSV’s courage does not work against Arsenal, which outplays Peter Bosz’s team in the Champions League

Also read: an interview with PSV defender Andre Ramalho. About the consequences of a blunder, and how you keep going

231 million for three players

Arsenal did not participate in the Champions League for seven years, for PSV it was five years. Words such as sporting trauma and pain sounded beforehand. Both teams believe they belong here, at the highest European level. But they often finished too low in the competition, or were eliminated in the preliminary rounds. Now Arsenal and PSV have found the momentum. Mikel Arteta, the innovative coach – an adept of Pep Guardiola – has given the Londoners a view of the top again in recent years. Peter Bosz did this in a modest way and in a much shorter period at PSV, also through good purchases from the club in the summer.

This purchasing behavior already shows the difference between these teams. Arsenal spent 231 million euros on three players this summer (235 million in total), PSV paid more than fifty million euros for seven newcomers. Declan Rice alone cost almost 117 million euros more than twice as much as the entire amount spent by PSV.

The second one will be ready within twenty minutes. A ball falls dead in midfield, but Arsenal gets away so quickly that PSV hasn’t even been able to think about getting into position. It is now Leandro Trossard who is released, again on the edge of the penalty area. He slides neatly inside, over the wet grass.

Arsenal come through again and again. And PSV just keeps trying. Doesn’t really bend back, as you often see, but still wants to move forward. That’s difficult when you get tick after tick. It can be seen in captain Luuk de Jong how, after a few Arsenal chances, he suddenly puts pressure almost alone and signals to his teammates with a hand gesture: come on, don’t hang back.

But that casts doubt on a team. And the opposite with Arsenal. Arteta’s team is playing wonderfully. Odegaard who keeps running free, even though PSV knew in advance that he was the man who would make the play. Gabriel Jesus with stepovers, fast movements, nice openings. Trossard who is too handy for direct opponent Jordan Teze, his speed of action is much higher. No matter how much space he gets from Teze after 37 minutes. But also: how he almost carelessly passes the ball, wiping with his instep. And Gabriel Jesus who takes the shot, looks for a moment and then shoots perfectly into the corner. 3-0 at half time.

A naive coach

Peter Bosz is sometimes accused of being a naive coach. Too attacking, too much pressure on the ball, even against exceptionally good teams that can easily outplay themselves. The trainer himself does not fully agree with this. Not anymore anyway. Years abroad – Borussia Dortmund, Bayer Leverkusen and Olympique Lyon – have given him experience, although he is not the coach to completely throw his vision overboard.

So PSV tries to play familiar Bosz football against Arsenal. Even after the 1-0, the 2-0 and the 3-0, although it is all less fierce than in the Eredivisie and it does not look reckless. But press forward, try to attack. Because Bosz also thinks it is naive not to want to make the game at all. Playing long balls and hoping you can stop everything? That’s just not possible against a team like Arsenal, Bosz believes. “Then they will score. They may do that now, but with more resistance,” he says just before kick-off. “You have to dare. I also ask that of the boys. If things go wrong, it’s my fault.”

Things go wrong. The entire evening, including in the second half, although Arsenal passed the struggling PSV legs at a slightly slower pace. Odegaard still scores, with a nice shot – again he gets a lot of space: 4-0.

PSV is back in the Champions League, the landing is hard. That will be quite a shock for Bosz’s team, but the situation is not hopeless. In a group with Sevilla and RC Lens, a result is still possible.