Imperious Paris Saint-Germain Continue to Smash Records
“It’s only the first stage of the season. It’s not finished.” Paris Saint-Germain’s president Nasser Al-Khelaifi’s reaction after his team snared a fourth consecutive title in the most emphatic fashion possible, with a 9-0 demolition of Troyes, summed up the Ligue 1 season in many ways, as well as the club’s own unfettered ambition.
Sunday’s monstrous show of strength in Champagne-Ardenne was a red letter day in many senses - as well as being the biggest away win in French top flight history, it ensured PSG became champions at the earliest-ever stage, comfortably ahead of Gérard Houllier’s Lyon, who sealed the deal with five games to spare in the 2006/07 season. As the club’s 28th major honour, it matched arch-rivals Marseille’s national record too.
Yet there is the sense that it will eventually become a footnote in the club’s history. Their eyes are trained on bigger rewards that fulfilling what had become a formality by demonstrating the yawning chasm between themselves and the worst side in Ligue 1 this season, who have won just twice in the campaign to date.
Sometimes, it feels as if nothing can hold back the tide. A friend from Lyon recently said he could just about accept Paris Saint-Germain’s dominance of the domestic game, as long as his side’s run of seven straight Ligue 1 titles remained untouched. PSG may only just have passed the halfway mark this weekend, but it feels as if the capital club are already looming over OL’s record.
That sensation was heightened by PSG’s ability to switch the mood and tempo of their approach, not for the first time this season, at the end of an important week. Even if the win at Troyes yielded the silverware, there’s no doubt the week’s first victory on the road, at Chelsea, had the added meaning.
It was PSG’s first win in England, but was more important in that it hinted as a movement in the balance of power. Laurent Blanc’s side didn’t just show that there was a quality gap between themselves and the outgoing English champions but that they knew it, and that they were comfortable with it. Since his early days in charge, he has made clear his desire for a possession-heavy game.
At Stamford Bridge, they imposed just that, taking 59.7% of the ball. They hit the target with 90% of those passes, despite Chelsea’s midfield aiming - and at least partially succeeding - in giving Thiago Motta and Adrien Rabiot the hurry-up.
They stood up to Chelsea’s efforts to get under their skin too, only narrowly missing out in terms of aerial duels (47% won) and tackles (20 made, to Chelsea’s 22). That Angel Di Maria has joined the party has clearly made a difference, as he matched Zlatan Ibrahimovic almost blow for blow at the Bridge; both took four shots, landing two on target, while Di Maria made three key passes to Ibrahimovic’s two.
That sharing of the creative load at the sharp end has made a heck of a difference to Ibrahimovic. His four-goal display at Troyes on Sunday - impressive in itself, and even more so when you consider his star man display at Chelsea - took him up to 27 Ligue 1 goals for the season, only three shy of his best-ever PSG league tally of 30.
With 33 in all competitions, he is also fast approaching his goalscoring high watermark overall in a season for PSG, which was 40 in the 2013/14 campaign. He has already matched his most prolific season for league assists, having supplied 11.
It’s all indicative of a continued growth. It used to be that Zlatan bullied opponents. Now, it’s Paris as a team that do it. They can keep the ball all day, with nine of the team’s first team regulars - for our purposes, players to have started at least 10 Ligue 1 matches - having completed at least 90% of their passes. Defensively, they have given little away. Seven of the regulars are averaging at least two tackles per game, and six have made at least two interceptions per game. Lucas Moura (2.5 dribbles per match) and Di Maria (1.7) have carried the ball expertly, but so has Rabiot (1.6), gently improving in the absence of Marco Verratti.
PSG have pummelled rivals, too, beating the three teams currently closest to them - Monaco, Nice and Lyon - by at least a 3-goal margin at various stages of the season. It is perhaps the sole league defeat, at Lyon last month, which has stood them in even better stead. Chelsea pressed as high as Bruno Genesio’s side on Wednesday to try and find the answer, but Blanc and his players had taken note and dug in well.
Plenty of other statistical landmarks are on the horizon - the tightest defence, held by Marseille’s 1991-92 team which conceded 21 (PSG have currently let in 15), highest points total in a season (the Parisian side are looking to topple their own record of 89, with the tally this season already at 77), and the number of wins in a season (again, set by PSG’s 2013/14 vintage with 27) with 24 already racked up this campaign with eight games still to play.
That PSG have ended up competing with themselves says a lot. There may be the feeling that only the Champions League - or at least a very good tilt at it - will do. Yet this stellar side’s extraordinary hunger in tearing apart everything put in front of them in a league which they could win with the metaphorical hand tied behind the back is extraordinary, and extremely praiseworthy in itself.
Can PSG build on their Ligue 1 success in Europe this season? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below
