How Ousmane Dembélé’s squad exclusion against Arsenal spurred on an exceptional 2025 | OneFootball

Ousmane Dembélé was the centre of intrigue when Paris Saint-Germain were defeated by Arsenal earlier this season in the UEFA Champions League. Much attention was directed at Luis Enrique’s decision to exclude Ousmane Dembélé from the squad after the Frenchman turned up late to a training session. The Spaniard’s choice has since been viewed internally as a pivotal moment that helped reshape PSG’s season.A member of PSG’s technical staff spoke to L’Équipe about the shift in Dembélé’s mentality over the winter. “There has been a change in mentality this winter. Ousmane has started to focus on individual performance, has taken his training sessions very seriously, and has been fully committed.”Since the turn of the year, Dembélé has got on the scoresheet 18 times and currently leads the goalscorer rankings in Ligue 1. It has also helped that the Frenchman has been repositioned in a more central attacking role under Luis Enrique. At the time Enrique’s choice to exclude Dembélé was heavily criticised – but it has since been viewed internally as a pivotal moment that helped reshape PSG’s season in Europe.Les Parisiens travel to the Emirates stadium for a second time this season tomorrow evening in the UEFA Champions League semi-finals (21:00).GFFN | George Boxall