Arsene Wenger off the Hook After Strange Arsenal Selection in Champions League

Arsenal have faced their toughest fixture of the Champions League group stage and come away with a point. A draw away to Paris Saint-Germain is an excellent result that means the Gunners ought to be in a strong position to qualify from Group A.

There ought to be a buoyant mood among the Gunners fans. However, their performance at the Parc des Princes was nothing to celebrate. Arsenal were disappointing once again, and manager Arsene Wenger is rightly coming under scrutiny for some bizarre selection decisions. 

Five games into their season, Arsenal have only played well once. That was for a 45-minute spell at Watford—for the most part they have looked disjointed and rudderless. At the weekend, they somehow scraped a 2-1 win over Southampton. At full-time, it was difficult to believe the Gunners had snatched a victory from a match in which they had so dramatically underwhelmed. 

Tuesday's draw with PSG has caused even more consternation. It’s difficult to understand how Arsenal managed to escape with a point after playing so poorly. 

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The warning signs were there as soon as Wenger named his XI. The back four remained intact from the Southampton game, which seemed sensible. However, the rest of the side caused eyebrows to be raised in north London and Paris.

In goal, David Ospina was handed his first start of the season ahead of Petr Cech. That was a surprising move, especially since the same decision backfired horrendously a year ago when the Colombia international fumbled an own goal over the line against Olympiakos.

In midfield, Wenger continued with the pairing of Santi Cazorla and Francis Coquelin, leaving £35 million man Granit Xhaka on the bench. When the Switzerland international was left out against Southampton, it was assumed he was merely being saved for the bigger occasion. Instead, he remained in reserve. 

It’s strange Wenger would finally break his parsimonious habits to spend so heavily on a new midfielder, only to leave him on the bench for such an important game. Arsenal missed Xhaka dreadfully until he made his entrance with around 20 minutes to go. Without his intelligent passing at the base of the midfield, they simply could not keep control of the game.

Ahead of the two deep midfielders, it was astonishing to see Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s name in the starting lineup. The England international looked bereft of confidence against Southampton—his face when withdrawn was seemingly that of a man who knew he’d failed to do enough to retain his place in the side. He was wrong—Wenger showed remarkable belief to keep faith in the 23-year-old.

Unfortunately, Oxlade-Chamberlain once again struggled to convert his potential into a positive performance. With other options like Alex Iwobi now available, this might have been his last chance for some time.

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His inclusion was presumably partly designed to accommodate Alexis Sanchez as a central striker. The Chilean had played Arsenal’s first three Premier League games through the middle, but he was expected to return to the flank now that Wenger had Lucas Perez and Olivier Giroud at his disposal.

Instead, both recognised strikers were benched, with Alexis tasked with acting as Arsenal’s attacking focal point. Once again, he struggled in the unfamiliar role—it was telling that his goal came once he had been restored to his more natural position on the left.

The only selection gamble that really came off for Wenger was picking Ospina. The Colombian rewarded his manager’s faith with an outstanding display, producing a series of excellent saves to keep Arsenal in the game. 

Afterwards, Wenger praised his goalkeeping deputy, per Jeremy Wilson of the Telegraph:

"

He showed his detractors, those who doubted him, that he is a very good goalkeeper.

Last year he made a mistake in the Champions League and everyone jumped all over him. He showed what he's about. I have two world-class goalkeepers. I can give them both games. If they do not play, you can't keep two world-class goalkeepers. We have a rule that the keepers know. It's important to have clear rules like that. They know what the rules are for the season. ...

It's down to performances. On what he delivered, he has the right to stay in the team for the next Champions League game.

"

Wenger may have felt some satisfaction at seeing Ospina defy his critics, but he would surely have been alarmed at how frequently the 28-year-old was called into action. Arsenal’s defence was particularly porous in Paris, and only the erratic finishing of Edinson Cavani spared the Gunners a mauling.

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Arsenal conceded within 42 seconds, and frankly it’s miraculous they managed to get through the rest of the game without shipping another goal. 

Considering Shkodran Mustafi and Laurent Koscielny are still familiarising themselves with each other, might it have made sense to keep the goalkeeper in place rather than further destabilising the defensive unit?

As it was, Arsenal were ragged throughout the game. Coquelin and Cazorla failed to provide adequate cover, and the back four looked disorganised and even disorientated. 

Wenger attempted to explain the performance, per the Telegraph:

"

Maybe we were a bit nervous. We lost a lot of challenges in the middle of the park, but overall it's a good result and a good point. They started much stronger than us. They played at a very high pace but we were in trouble mainly when we lost the ball on the counter-attack. Even then, you could see we would be dangerous and create chances if we managed to keep the ball better.

When you start so badly against a team of that quality, if you have no experience or are too young, you can be caught. The resilience is linked to experience. I told the players at half-time that if we kept the ball, we'd come back because we were dangerous when we had good possession of the ball.

"

Arsenal did come back, but only once Wenger had changed the shape of his team to play with Giroud as a target man. The Gunners got a result in spite of their manager’s plan rather than because of it.

On the positive side, Arsenal are now unbeaten since the opening day of the 2016/17 season. They’ve drawn two of the subsequent four games, but those were away to the champions of England and France. Wenger will contest that momentum is building behind his team—at least as far as results go.

The concern is that there is no sign of this team jelling. Wenger does not appear to know his best XI, and for all his protestations about his team's resilience, the reality is that Cavani’s wastefulness was their greatest ally in this game. 

Arsenal’s draw in Paris has got their Champions League campaign off to a good start. However, they will require a massive improvement if they’re to emerge as serious challengers in this competition.

James McNicholas is Bleacher Report's lead Arsenal correspondent and will be following the club from a London base throughout 2016/17. Follow him on Twitter here.