There may be a sense of existential drift around the squash-ladder format of Uefa’s new Champions League, a sense of slackness, of football happening just because money says it has to happen. But you can only beat the 35 teams in front of you and this was on its own terms a very good win for Arsenal.
It was also something new, a 2-0 defeat of Paris Saint-Germain in front of a boisterous crowd but also a win against the champions of France that is still essentially a marker and a warmup for other stuff. The only way to exit this thing outright in the first phase is to finish 24th or below in a 36-team table that also contains Young Boys and Slovan Bratislava. The richer clubs wanted this, a chance to play each other constantly, to have a good time all the time. Product duly happened here. But for Arsenal it was still instructive in its own way.
