Arsenal is responsible for the defeat of the Champions League against Lyonnes in competition

BOREHAMWOOD, England – Lyonne striker Melchie Dumornay has shown that Arsenal has exactly what is happening when you orchestrate your own disappearance against a team that is hungry to prove that they are always one of the best in Europe.

The 22-year-old scored the two goals in the 2-1 victory of Lyonnes against Arsenal on Tuesday to open the UEFA women’s champions League. For Arsenal, the defensive weaknesses that have persisted since the start of the season have forced them to lose their first match in competition since he won the title of the UWCL last season.

Arsenal was their worst enemies this season. It was not the ruthless team of Lyonnes, the tactic of their new manager Jonatan Giraldez or their previous eight titles of the Champions League that led to Tuesday’s defeat. The only side to blame for having allowed Lyonnes to guarantee a comfortable victory was arsenal themselves.

The Gunners started quickly, taking the lead within seven minutes thanks to Alessia Russo. It was Beth Mead who fought through blue shirts bulky the area and was held firm through the plated to feed Russo. It was an unusual failure to concentrate eight winners who would no longer make this kind of error.

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For a large part of 90 minutes, Arsenal lacked intention in the last third. They sent a pass after the pass in the area, unable to break the Lyonnes, the team previously known as the Olympic Lyonnais. The Gunners have rarely preserved possession and rarely mentioned a target attempt accordingly. If they had been more clinical, perhaps their defense responsible for error could have been forgiven.

Arsenal was at fault for the two goals they conceded. The goalkeeper Daphne Van Domselaar first sent the ball directly to Dumornay after recovering possession. The Dutch shot managed to thwart the first effort, but could not do anything to prevent the rebound from passing before it.

For the second goal, five minutes later, Van Domselaar did not read that Linsey Heaps tracked up behind Mariona Caldentey who put the Spanish under pressure. She sent a hasty release to the inexperienced reid katie which, in its second full start in the competition, led it directly to Dumornay, and the Haitian international is far too qualified to waste these opportunities.

The Gunners continue to seriously miss the central defender and vice-captain Leah Williamson.

On the ball, they miss his ball skills and his ability to send long bullets above the midfield to break the lines and give Arsenal another attacker threat. Outside the ball, they miss their leadership and coolness on the back.

Although Reid did well in the absence of Williamson, there is a calm that does not go in the current side. After having established a partnership with the former back of the back, Steph Catley for six games so far, there will naturally be a period of dentition when the pair learns the movements and the nuances of each – but after having lagged behind in the female super league, and now dragging in the new Champions League format, where there will be no second chance compared to the old group phase, they have no time for these rounds cohesions and communications in relation to the group phase.

Arsenal was lucky against teams like Manchester United after a 0-0 draw in the WSL while they were shooting whites against the Gunners, unable to find the target effectively. The warning was there that a better team would punish them. Manchester City saw Arsenal in a 3-2 victory on Saturday and now, the defeat against Lyonnes stretches the Gunners in Winless in five of the seven games so far.

The celebrations of full -time visitors were categorical. The players and the bench jumped into the air in the exaltation. They knew what it means to drop the points of the champions in title and what declaration it sends to the rest of the continent.

Lyonnes had a point to prove. Given the way they lost the semi-final last season-wasting an advance of 2-1 to lose 1-4 (3-5 in aggregate)-the French part was no longer embarrassed.

Concede the first time the launched. Quickly afterwards, they promulgated a stifling press, without letting Arsenal have at any time on the ball, forcing them to put pressure on movements and biased decision -making. Once they had the ball, it was a quick lightning. Their intense and merciless attack is a firepower with the rhythm of Kadiatou Diani, Dumornay and Marie-Autitionette Katoto that the defense of Arsenal, already fragile and fragile could not manage.

Lyonnes Mothing Movements also caused the Gunners’ problems in the midfield. It is clear that under the former boss of Barcelona, ​​Jonatan Giraldez, introduced part of the classic leg game that Barcelona adopted under his direction. This, added to the natural quality of so many Lyonne players, the way they created the victory was a declaration for the rest of Europe.

Since their last victory in 2022, Lyonnes have not had the same respect they had had for so many years. Having been eight winners, the most in the history of the competition, there is a natural pedigree there, but having been dethroned by Barcelona, ​​and a new wave of fans who did not look during the Glory days of the Lyonnes, there was a eagerness for the French part to recover part of the status they had before.

With a competitive winner and known at the helm and a specially designed team – the Lyonnes were undoubtedly the clubs of the Champions League in the summer transfer window, signing players like Lily Yohannes, Jule Brand and Korbin Shrader – the eight winners make the declaration that it could be the season when they claim a ninth title.

For Arsenal, the perspectives are not so bright. They have now extended their bad race for two draws and two defeats in all competitions. They haven’t won a match since the second week of the WSL.

It is not too different from the way they started last season, against a victory, two draws and two defeats – 2-1 against Chelsea and 5-2 in Bayern Munich – in all competitions before the former manager Jonas Eidevall was dismissed.

He had lost the locker room, however, and the fans had turned against the Swedish, and the circumstances are not as dark as they were 12 months ago. The current director of Arsenal, Renee Slegers, always has the full support of those of the club and fans, but the rejuvenation that Eidevall’s ax, with the current manager Renee Slegers will intervene temporarily, forced the club to realign and they will not get this moment of sliding doors this season.

After his departure, the club was forced to bounce back. They responded to carry out a sequence of victories, operating under the new direction of the Dutch coach. It was a new arsenal. They were invigorated and invigorated, naturally leading to the permanent appointment of Sleger, which only pursued the harmony and contentment that the team expressed.

But now, in a position similar to last season, there will be no external change which will force the team to regroup. Slegers, having won the Champions League, will have rightly brought too much credit to justify a departure. The reversal that the club will have to pass to rewrite its bad start this season will have to come from inside and quickly.

Arsenal has already lost more points than the Champions of WSL Régnants that Chelsea did all the last season and are now five points where the blues are seated at the top of the table. Although he is early, only one match in a six -game league phase, he could be crucial with the club to face Benfica, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid.