Mikel Arteta believes Arsenal have a "big chance" of reaching the Champions League final, despite being left to rue the fine margins in their semi-final first-leg defeat to Paris Saint-Germain.

Ousmane Dembele's pinpoint finish in the fourth minute, which came at the end of a 26-pass move, proved decisive for Luis Enrique's men at the Emirates Stadium.

PSG were utterly dominant in the first half-hour, and though Arsenal improved after that, they found Gianluigi Donnarumma in good form between the sticks.

The Italian made one-on-one saves to deny Gabriel Martinelli and Leandro Trossard, while Mikel Merino had a potential equaliser disallowed for offside early in the second half.

PSG have now won five of their last seven away knockout-stage games in the Champions League (two losses), as many wins as in their previous 16 such matches (two draws, nine defeats).

Arsenal, meanwhile, failed to score in a home Champions League game for the first time since a 2-0 last-16 defeat to Barcelona in 2016, but Arteta was not overly disheartened.

Asked for his initial thoughts on the balance of the tie by Amazon Prime Video, Arteta said: "It's half-time and we have a big chance to be in the final.

"We're disappointed with the result, obviously, as we put so much into the game. In the first 15 minutes, we struggled to get the momentum and the dominance that we wanted.

"But the goal was a great individual moment and those are the margins at this level. After that, the team got better and better and we were frustrated not to get a draw at least."

Merino's disallowed goal came just two minutes into the second half, with the Spaniard failing to get back onside before he nodded Declan Rice's free-kick home, and Arteta believes Arsenal needed a breakthrough moment to liven up the atmosphere.

"That would have been great timing. Those are the fine margins at this level, also the saves from Donnarumma against Martinelli and Trossard, those are the margins," Arteta said.

Goalkeeper David Raya, meanwhile, insisted Arsenal deserved more from the encounter, telling Amazon Prime Video: "They started quickly with a goal and they dominated the first 15 or 20 minutes, but after that I thought we dominated most of the game, we created chances. 

"Donnarumma made some good saves. It's only half-time, so we take the positives. They are a top team but credit to the players for the effort, we could've won the game.

"We needed that lift and we showed from the 25th minute that we can win against any team. We have showed we can win away games so we'll go to Paris trying to win."

Arsenal bettered PSG's expected goals (xG) figure by 1.65 to 1.14 and had three big chances – as defined by Opta – to the visitors' two, though they had fewer shots (10 to 11) and a lower possession share (47.9%).

The Gunners must now win at the Parc des Princes next Wednesday to have any chance of reaching their second Champions League final, but Raya is confident in their chances.

He said: "We'll try to approach the game the same way. We played well, we put them on the back foot, we hurt them and we created a lot of chances as well. We know we can win against any team."