UEFA Champions League Final 2026Paris Saint-Germain v Arsenal F.C.
Arsenal came out second best as PSG successfully defended their Champions League crown (Picture: Getty)
French World Cup winner Christophe Dugarry has taken aim at Arsenal’s ‘unbearable’ and ‘intolerable’ game-plan against Paris Saint-Germain, branding Mikel Arteta’s side ‘a bunch of clowns’ for allowing the Champions League final to slip through their fingers.
Arsenal entered last weekend’s spectacle in Budapest with an impressive undefeated record in the competition, but the newly crowned English champions came unstuck against PSG, the holders, despite taking an early lead through Kai Havertz.
Ousmane Dembele equalised from the spot after Cristhian Mosquera had brought down Khvicha Kvaratskhelia inside the box and Luis Enrique’s men eventually prevailed on penalties, with the two teams still level at the end of extra-time.
Though Arsenal finally brought their 22-year wait for a Premier League title to a halt just a week-and-a-half earlier, Saturday’s disappointing result means the Gunners’ quest to be crowned European champions will continue on into next season.
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Despite the fact PSG are widely regarded to be the finest attacking team on the planet, Arsenal have received their fair share of criticism for the largely defensive approach they adopted at the Puskas Arena.
After all, Arteta’s side finished the game with less than 25 per cent of the possession, while Havertz’s emphatic sixth-minute effort proved to be their one and only shot on target.
‘Arsenal will remain the greatest club to have never won the Champions League. Well done to Arsenal , but what a shame,’ former France, AC Milan and Barcelona striker Dugarry said on RMC Sport’s Rothen S’enflamme programme.
Paris Saint-Germain v Arsenal FC - UEFA Champions League Final 2026
Gabriel struck his penalty over the crossbar to hand PSG victory (Picture: Getty)
Paris Saint-Germain v Arsenal FC - UEFA Champions League Final 2026
Arteta has been widely criticised for his ultra-cautious approach in Budapest (Picture: Getty)
‘Their intentions were clear from the start of the match: absolutely nothing, zilch, they did nothing. At no point did they come onto the pitch to create anything.
‘We saw clearances, an Arsenal team that systematically tried to waste time. It was simply unbearable, intolerable.
‘And what almost proved terrible for football and the people who love it is that they almost gave the illusion that by creating and doing so little, you can win the Champions League.
‘Because it’s not just in this match that they created so little. It’s been the case for many matches now.’
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A worked-up Dugarry went one step further as he continued his scathing rant, claiming it would have been a ‘scandal’ had Arsenal’s ‘clowns’ come out on top.
‘They’re a bunch of clowns,’ Dugarry – who won the World Cup in 1998 – added.
‘They arrived with an inflated ego, with Arteta saying, “We’re going to beat them’… I’m so glad Arsenal got the short end of the stick, and I hope that if they ever want to win it, they’ll start playing football.
‘This isn’t Arsenal! This club has a history, they’re the Gunners, there’s a legacy, a style of football. They can’t play like that, it’s impossible.
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‘You can’t win the Champions League doing things like that. And even if they had succeeded, it would have been a scandal. They would have won it, but they would have been bitter about it.’
Dugarry went on: ‘The best way to have regrets is to play the way they did. When you play like that and you lose, you have regrets for the rest of your life.
‘If they had tried to play and they had lost, they wouldn’t have had any regrets.
‘Now they have a lot of them and it serves them right.’
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Dugarry was left aghast by Arsenal’s performance (Picture: Getty)
Former Chelsea midfielder Craig Burley felt similarly about Arsenal’s cautious tactics, insisting Arteta’s ultra-defensive approach was always unlikely to succeed after taking the lead so early.
‘Let’s lay it out on the table, when they scored after six minutes, they tried to defend their way to the 90th minute,’ Burley told ESPN.
‘Had it been PSG who scored after six minutes, they would have carried on attacking and probing and trying to win the game. And that’s the contrast in how these two teams approach, not only the final, but approach football.
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‘PSG are very progressive at the moment, and yes, Arsenal have won the Premier League, but PSG are very progressive.
‘They want to probe and press and attack and continually try and use their guile and their skill. And Arsenal regressed into trying to defend their way through 84 minutes plus injury time? That’s tough to do.
‘They almost pulled it off, but that’s tough to do. A valiant effort from Arsenal, but in terms of a football game, PSG by far, even not at their best, by far the better of these two sides.’
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Burley also took aim at Arsenal’s unorthodox kick-off routine in the Hungarian capital, which saw Declan Rice launch the ball into the sky in order to set up aerial duels against PSG.
‘Three times from a kick-off they’ve lobbed it forward like it was a game of rugby. That’s embarrassing,’ the ex-Scotland international added.
‘They’ve sat there and said, ‘you know what, let’s just launch a high ball every time we get a kick-off and try and win’. That’s 1980s football back in England. It really is.
‘I don’t get all the plaudits. Sure, Champions League final, they got there, they were competitive because they were defensive.
‘But I don’t understand all the plaudits when your game plan, once you get the goal, is to just sit back and allow the best footballing side in Europe possession of the football and trying to defend for 84 minutes. That’s not an acceptable way to try and win this competition.’
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