Sometimes, there are moments in football which make you sit back and wonder: why doesn’t everyone just do that?
One such instance came in arguably the game of last season, in a Champions League semi-final first leg between Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich. PSG ran out 5-4 winners in an exhibition of pure skill and creativity that made for one of the most enthralling matches in recent memory.
One of the nine goals stood out in particular for a slightly peculiar reason. Khvicha Kvaratskhelia’s equaliser to make it 1-1 in the first half had a mix of what has become the norm while also newish quirk. The Georgia international cutting in off the left to curl the ball into the far corner has been a trademark in European football since his 2022 move to Napoli, but the ball in behind being played by his opposite winger, Desire Doue, felt different.
Rather than playing as two traditional wingers, in this moment, both players were on the left flank. That broke Bayern apart, with Dayot Upamecano desperately stepping forward to engage Doue, leaving a massive gap in behind for Kvaratskhelia to exploit.
Doue’s initial double movement and left-footed dink into space are not easily replicated. Neither is the fact that, unlike some wingers, he spent time playing as a central midfielder when breaking through, that period at Rennes making him more comfortable in deeper areas.
PSG benefited from having two wingers on the same side throughout last season. Below are a selection of three such goals on their run to becoming back-to-back Champions League winners.
As well as attracting more attention to himself to create space for Kvaratskhelia, Doue’s movement away from the right wing also leaves room for Achraf Hakimi to get high and wide from right-back.
Enrique’s side were not as free-flowing in the final against Arsenal but after their win on penalties, opposition manager Mikel Arteta said: “They are, in my opinion, the best team in the world. What they are able to do with the ball, with individual actions, I haven’t seen.”
That open admiration from Arteta begged the question of whether his forwards would be afforded similar freedom as part of his next evolutionary step, but that can be asked of all teams who are vying to become the best in Europe. How do they make themselves a different proposition? How do they create a threat that is so difficult to prepare and account for?
Arsenal failed to land a marquee attacking signing in the summer transfer window, having missed out on Morgan Rogers, Bradley Barcola and Vinicius Junior, but their wingers have still been interesting to watch in the opening weeks of the season.
Looking at the evolution of Arsenal’s attack, the peak is often considered to be the 2022-23 season. That year, Arteta’s side carried threat from all angles.
Their final-third entries were almost identical across the five channels of the pitch, which helped Bukayo Saka (14), Martin Odegaard (15), Gabriel Jesus (11) and Gabriel Martinelli (15) all score more than 10 league goals each. Their wide men breaking into the box was a major factor in these numbers but in the years that followed, Saka and Martinelli’s involvement moved further from goal and closer to the touchline.
This term, there already seems to be a more conscious effort to have Saka and new left-winger Christos Tzolis roam free to impact the game.
Below is a moment from the opening day of the Premier League season when Tzolis moves all the way to the right wing to cross for Saka in the centre of the Coventry City penalty area (a run he has trained since he was at his boyhood club PAOK).
Saka then had a moment against Villa when he took it upon himself to join Tzolis on the left wing.
The passage of play (below) lasted about 40 seconds from the moment Arsenal’s No 7 started drifting across the pitch, repeatedly calling for the ball to be played left. Unfortunately, he was just offside when Tzolis found his run between right-back and centre-back.
Speaking about these movements before Arsenal’s 2-1 win over Chelsea, Arteta said: “That is a very random situation. Sometimes not something as a game plan but the chaos of the game or certain actions within the game because of a previous moment can lead you to those two wingers to play closer to each other because there are moments, even if you want to, (where) the speed of the game doesn’t allow you to make those movements because you’re going to need time in order to bring players that are 60 metres apart closer together. So it has to do a lot with the dynamic and the opportunities the game offers.”
Arsenal’s tactical trick to beat Chelsea
Jonathan Mackenzie
For the talk about randomness in the build-up, a similar moment (below) occurred against Chelsea. Just after Ezri Konsa’s energy-boosting tackle on Morgan Rogers, Saka sensed a chance to come off his wing and it ended in a shot on goal.
These moments may come once or twice in a game, but they can make a difference if well-executed.
Where Saka pops up throughout the 2026-27 season will be particularly interesting. He occasionally spent time on the left wing late in games at the start of last season, while Martinelli would sometimes appear on the right. Already on their stronger feet, their games were simplified instead of being forced to cut inside.
Saka also made three appearances as a No 10 in February. When asked about what he liked about Saka in that position, Arteta said: “Well, he’s more central and he’s closer to the goal. It’s a bit more difficult for the opponent to get his reference constantly. He can interchange positions with the wide player as well, and he’s so good at picking those spaces. When he’s there, he can really hurt you with the ball.”
After a couple of seasons when it feels like Saka’s game has been closer to the touchline and further from the goal, a bigger presence inside the pitch is a welcome addition. In fact, he has already matched his tally for goals inside the six-yard box for each of the past two seasons (one each in 2024-25 and 2025-26) with his winner at Villa.
Even in that goal-laden PSG vs Bayern semi-final, Michael Olise showed the value of a right winger having the freedom to find more central areas as a goal threat.
“The reason why the game was the way it was is because every player on the pitch gives the chance to the forward line to create chances,” Bayern head coach Vincent Kompany told CBS Sports. “Michael Olise needs the runs from the full-backs to create those chances just like Doue needs the runs from Hakimi. It’s easy to say hold the full-backs back so you can control the counter-attacks better but how much do you lose with that as well?”
Despite the perception of Arsenal being functional under Arteta, he has championed the use of freer full-backs to open up the pitch for years. Riccardo Calafiori’s unique style is the current flavour of the month but Ben White first unlocked something new for Arsenal four years ago when he moved from centre-back to right-back.
There has been a widespread opinion that football has become too rigid and regimented in recent seasons, but Luis Enrique’s PSG are one of the few antidotes to that. There is no doubt the quality of players that managers have available plays a massive part in how expressive their style becomes but as ideas go, Luis Enrique’s use of his wide players last season definitely set PSG apart.
It may not be easy for teams to replicate but with the Champions League back under way, we may start to see some adopt this way of attacking to give themselves a different edge going forward.
