Former Aston Villa striker Gabriel Agbonlahor believes the atmosphere contained in the Emirates Stadium during Arsenal’s defeat to Paris Saint-Germain was ’embarrassing’ and has branded the pre-match tifo ‘horrendous’.
Mikel Arteta’s side now face an uphill task to achieve the Champions League final following a 1-0 defeat to PSG in the primary leg of their semi final on Tuesday night.
Ousmane Dembele’s goal after just 4 minutes was enough to secure the win for Luis Enrique’s side, who now take a slender advantage back to the French capital for the second leg of their Champions League tie on the Parc des Princes next Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Arsenal supporters were on the receiving end of criticism from Wayne Rooney after the sport, with the previous Manchester United and England striker saying that he was ‘disillusioned’ by the shortage of energy from the fans contained in the stadium.
For his or her first leg against PSG, Arsenal were keen to copy the full of life atmosphere of their 3-0 victory over Real Madrid on the Emirates within the Champions League quarter final earlier this month.
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The Gunners produced an enormous tifo of a cannon which was suspended from the roof of the North Bank ahead of kick-off, while the ‘make it occur’ crowd-surfing banner was seen once more within the East Stand.
But Agbonlahor has described the tifo as ‘something my seven-year-old had done at college for a project’.
‘It was embarrassing, they were quiet,’ Agbonlahor told talkSPORT when asked in regards to the Arsenal supporters on the Emirates.
‘Come on, it was a semi-final of the Champions League, have a look at what Liverpool have done at Anfield in semi-finals, Aston Villa against PSG.
‘Do they need a person with a speaking behind the goal saying, ‘sing, sing’?
‘It makes it embarrassing for the Arsenal fanbase that they need Odegaard every second, Raya was doing it, the manager was doing it. But what I’d say is perhaps if Odegaard put in a performance to lift the fans just a little bit because he’s all the time a cheerleader, he’s all the time going like this, waving his arms. Should you’re an Arsenal fan you’re like, ‘no offence, Martin, but perhaps you possibly can do something to lift us since you’re not having the best of games, best of seasons’.
‘I just felt the tifo was embarrassing, the atmosphere was embarrassing, for a semi-final the club must have done quite a bit more.
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‘Imagine Celtic in a semi-final, you wouldn’t give you the option to listen to the manager the entire game.
‘It’s incredible, how will you just not create an environment on your players?
‘I’ve seen Odegaard, I saw Raya, I saw Martinelli just a few times as well, Arteta, it’s like they were begging, ‘please, are you able to sing? Give us something, help’.
‘The tifo was embarrassing. It looked like something my seven-year-old had done at college for a project, just like the parents have helped.
‘You’ve got to cover quite a bit more of that lower tier, not only just a little bit. It was horrendous. It summed up the night for Arsenal, the tifo.’
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