Alan Shearer singles out one Arsenal player after PSG Champions League semi-final defeat

Alan Shearer has held Thomas Partey culpable for Arsenal's loss to PSG, with the Gunners suffering a 1-0 setback in their first leg of the Champions League semi-final.

Luis Enrique's side gained an early advantage thanks to Ousmane Dembele's goal within three minutes from Joao Neves' assist, leaving 's squad with a mountain to climb in their bid for a first Champions League final berth since 2006.

will be bolstered for the return leg at Parc des Princes with the comeback of influential midfielder Partey, who . He received a booking late in the quarter-final against Real Madrid which

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Instead, Arteta repositioned Mikel Merino into midfield from a makeshift striker spot, while Declan Rice took over Partey's customary defensive midfield role, having played there often for West Ham. Nonetheless, Shearer believes the early goal conceded could have been averted if Partey had been available.

, Shearer remarked: "I'm not sure they would've got that ball into Dembele in the third minute. I think he [Partey] would have been there sweeping it up. You can't allow them to pass it from back to front. What a start for PSG!".

Arteta acknowledged that Arsenal lacked a certain element in their first-leg defeat but chose not to detail the issue, stating it had been addressed, reports .

"The first 15-20 minutes, especially them scoring so early in a great combination, playing when the margins as so small, the finishing is unbelievable. And then we had especially one issue that we corrected after 15-20 minutes," he remarked.

"We sustained that for the rest of the game, which I think turned the game around. If you want to win the Champions League final, you have to do something special and we're going to have to do something special in Paris to be there.

"I'm telling you it's just something that is very specific but very important, especially the way we played. We corrected it and it's not easy to correct it constantly but we did it and we did it much better.

"And in the end, we have two of our front players one v one with Donnarumma, if they scored the goal, it's different. He made the saves like he did against Liverpool and Villa and that's the difference in the Champions League, the margins are so small.

"We had a disallowed goal as well and another two big situations that happened in the game that didn't go unfortunately our way. If it's [performance] significantly better, hopefully the result will be significantly different as well."