Wayne Rooney’s five pointed digs at Arsenal as ‘fear’ takes over in PSG defeat

Wayne Rooney, who won the Champions League with Manchester United in 2008, has taken aim at Arsenal over their approach to their semi-final first-leg clash with Paris Saint-Germain

Wayne Rooney was hugely critical of Arsenal as they were beaten 1-0 by Paris Saint-Germain in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final clash. An early strike from Ousmane Dembele proved to be the winner, with PSG emerging victorious at the Emirates.

Arsenal will now have to come from behind in the second leg at the Parc des Princes next week if they are to reach the final for the first time since 2006, when they were beaten 2-1 by Barcelona.

And Rooney, who won the tournament with Manchester United in 2008, has taken aim at Arsenal over their approach to the fixture. Rooney was working on the game as a pundit for Amazon Prime and had five main criticisms of Arsenal.

Here, Mirror Football takes a look at Rooney’s comments ahead of the second leg…

READ MORE: Ousmane Dembele deals fresh Arsenal blow as he breaks silence on injury issueREAD MORE: Mikel Arteta told he has to drop Arsenal star for ‘fearless’ team-mate in PSG second leg

Rice claim

Declan Rice attempted to inspire his team-mates with a big speech during the warm-up, telling them: “If we don’t have the ball, we die.”

However, Rooney felt his comments were naive as PSG were always going to dominate the ball at times and they did end up having more possession than Arsenal. “I understand what Declan’s saying there, but Arsenal have to understand there are going to be large periods of this game and next week’s game where they’re not going to have the ball,” he explained

“They have to make sure they are focused when they don’t have the ball. Stay together, stay compact and take advantage when they have it.”

Fans slammed

Rooney was critical of the Arsenal fans after the game, claiming that they believed they would “walk into the final” after beating Real Madrid in the quarter-finals.

Rooney also took aim at the Emirates atmosphere, describing it as “subdued”. Rooney said: “PSG could have won the game by two or three.

“I was a bit disappointed with how Arsenal played and the fans too. It was subdued. It was like they beat Real Madrid and would walk into the final.”

Rice error

Rooney felt Rice was also at fault for Dembele’s goal, claiming the midfielder should have covered the space that the PSG star ran into before he scored.

“It is a really good pass that break the lines,” Rooney explained. “Arsenal have enough time to recover.

“Rice makes the wrong decision, he thinks he is trying to cover but he leaves the space of the danger of where Dembele is. In the quarter-final, the semi-final, those details win and lose you the competition and today Arsenal got a lot wrong.”

Raya comments

Goalkeeper David Raya attempted to highlight the positives for Arsenal after the match, claiming they “dominated most of the game” following the opening 20 minutes.

However, Rooney took issue with his comments and said: “I think what’s happened there is Mikel Arteta’s probably gone in and tried to be as positive as he can be and David Raya has given that message back out because certainly that’s not what happened in the game.

Arsenal’s “fear”

Arsenal have won just one trophy since Mikel Arteta took charge in 2019, beating Chelsea in the 2020 FA Cup final, and Rooney believes their defeat to PSG highlights why the Gunners have fallen short in recent years.

“I think for Arsenal there’s a fear over the last few years, psychologically, there’s a fear of not getting over the line,” Rooney explained. “They’ve ran Manchester City close a couple of times in the league, they’ve ran Liverpool a little bit close, now they’ve beaten Madrid and they’re close in the Champions League…

“I think there’s a fear. There’s a hurdle they have to go over. You need to be successful to build, and that’s the only way you can build is being successful on the way on the journey to the top, and I don’t think they’re making those steps.”

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