Not ideal. That is the short story for what is, of course, a multifaceted context after the home defeat to Bournemouth.

This was just ’s second home league defeat of the entire season, the problem being the poor form has come about through an inability to win games in the league with the 4-0 victory over Ipswich Town the only three points collected from the past five matches. While Luis Enrique made ten changes from the team that beat the Gunners on Wednesday night, Mikel Arteta went strong.

Ben White and Thomas Partey from the Tuesday night defeat. Arteta was aksed about his Parisien opponent changing far more of his team but the reply was fairly obvious as it came back.

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“Well, I don't know, they won the league so they have the luxury to do that,” he said. “We haven't because we still have a lot to do in the Premier League.

“But we have four days and I'm sure we'll be fully recovered and our best to play the game." A confident response regarding the players who will be ready despite just a few questions later admitting that several of those who started were perhaps not entirely fresh for the game and will now likely play again in just four days.

“Again, our preparation has been exactly the same, not even more. I'm trying to put more emphasis into it,” he said. "The margins are very small.

“It's true that maybe we lacked, I don't know, maybe a little bit of freshness and the way they have to repeat today, they have to play some plays that probably they were in the best condition to play because we don't have all those plays. But that's it, that's the context that we have.”

This does not look like a side who can beat PSG in their own back yard but I am reminded that ahead of a 7-1 win at PSV Eindhoven, I was on record saying I did not know where a goal would come from. This same team only the other week battered Real Madrid 5-1 across two legs.

We know that this team is capable of putting on some incredible performances when the pressure is on. Perhaps this environment of the Premier League has been what continues to stifle the side.

I put it to Arteta that perhaps as the gap to Liverpool has widened and the title become unattainable, perhaps the application domestically and in Europe, where there is a trophy to chase, is different and whether he had noticed it, but maybe unsurprisingly he batted this away.

“We try not to, I think that's something very, very individual,” he said. “The way we have prepared the game and today we talked about a lot of things that we had to do against a very good opposition that were very necessary to win the game.

“We certainly missed the most important one which is defending the box because we did it poorly three times, very poorly. One in the first half and two in the second half and it cost us the points, that's the reality.”

I felt myself needing to frantically check all of the potential outcomes from the remaining games of the season, and how safe Arsenal’s Champions League qualification still is. Sky Sports’ Gary Cotterill claimed that a supercomputer had estimated before the defeat to Bournemouth that Arsenal had a 99.6% chance, but there is no telling how much that has changed.

The fact Chelsea still play both Nottingham Forest and Newcastle before the season ends offers the Gunners something of a safety net but they will need to find a win from their own remaining games at Liverpool, at home to Newcastle and then away to Southampton. It is a little mad that the final game of the season, that should have been a day at the seaside, might now have some weight to it.

Newcastle can move to within two points of the Gunners while Man City are only three behind. The title race may be over but there is a good argument that Arsenal simply were never in one as the European distraction has taken precedence.

No doubt if Arsenal do go out of the competition on Wednesday, the mood will be very low. The season is riding on Arsenal turning around this one-goal deficit and while they certainly can, optimism is not high as the Emirates emptied well ahead of the full-time whistle.

I hate having to talk VAR and referees and to preface this next topic, Arsenal did not deserve to win the game and a draw would have been a fair result. But… it is ludicrous that while the rules state a touch off the arm which goes directly into the net should negate any goal we did not see this applied at the Emirates.

A statement relayed something which has become very familiar to Arsenal and their supporters: Insufficient evidence. Well, I could see it after a few seconds let alone the several minutes the VAR officials spent assessing the footage.

It is clear. Very, very clear.

Mikel Arteta spoke pre-match about the changing of rules across the season. Making clear reference to the red card suffered by Declan Rice and Leandro Trossard.

"I hope so because there were rules at the beginning of the season and we were punished. And after 15 games they were very different.

"Hopefully next season we will have rules for 15 games and change them again. That would be great.”

I empathise with him and with every character I find myself just getting more irate at some of the calls we see in the game today. The officiating standards in this country are horrendous, the only thing that remains consistent is the inconsistency of calls across the league.

Arteta talked about the anger and using that to take to Paris to turn into a positive. If the team are half as angry as I am watching back the replays of that goal, we could be in for a cracker of a victory – I sincerely hope so.