beIN SPORTS

By Jonathan Johnson (@Jon_LeGossip)

Introduction

Paris Saint-Germain will be looking for a third consecutive domestic clean sweep this season after enjoying total dominance for the past two campaigns.

Under Laurent Blanc, Les Parisiens were untouchable in France, but Le President was unable to push the team past the UEFA Champions League quarterfinals. That, in the eyes of owners Qatar Sports Investments (QSI), was not good enough.

The French tactician paid the price for that continental stagnation and now Unai Emery has been brought in from three-time UEFA Europa League winners Sevilla to improve on his predecessor’s record.

What has changed from last season

Emery replacing Blanc on the bench is obviously the biggest change from last season but PSG have made five new signings on the pitch as well.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Gregory van der Wiel have moved on, while Lucas Digne was sold to Barcelona but Grzegorz Krychowiak, Jese Rodriguez, Thomas Meunier, Hatem Ben Arfa and Giovani Lo Celso have replaced those departures.

The latter, a highly rated Argentina youth international, will remain on loan with formative club Rosario Central until the end of the season but the other four will all form part of Emery’s new-look PSG that is based more on a strong collective than Ibrahimovic’s consistent individual brilliance.

That is perhaps the biggest change of all. Since his arrival in Paris back in the summer of 2012, the super Swede has dominated Ligue 1 and PSG were unstoppable, domestically, with him.

Without him, it is up to Emery to inspire his squad to pull together and compensate for the loss of their former talisman by making the team the new star at Parc des Princes.

Objectives

Anything less than at least a Champions League semi-final berth this season will be deemed unacceptable and could land Emery in difficulty after less than a year in charge.

Although PSG’s ambitious Qatari owners now expect utter domestic dominance, they are likely to be willing to miss out on at least one domestic cup in order to secure their main objective.

However, failing to win the Ligue 1 title would be considered a massive failure, so Emery must secure his first piece of major domestic silverware and push his new team into the last four of the Champions League to be in with a chance of keeping his new bosses happy.

Prediction

The loss of Ibrahimovic and Blanc has weakened PSG from a domestic point of view but not enough for them to be considered anything less than favourites for their seventh Ligue 1 title.

Barring an unforeseen catastrophe, the French champions will win their fifth consecutive title. The question is, will they push on in Europe?

Strangely, the moves made by the French capital outfit this summer arguably make them stronger in continental competition but raise questions over their ability to win everything domestically once more.

This will be the season that PSG break into the champions League semi-finals but they probably will not sweep all before them domestically. Expect either their Coupe de la Ligue or Coupe de France title defence to falter.