Morning all.
After an epic Champions League semi-final last night, it’s our turn this evening as we face Atletico Madrid at the Metropolitano. These may be famous last words, but if it’s anything at all like PSG 5-4 Bayern, I’ll eat my hat.
It is worth noting that this current iteration of Atletico are quite different from the perception people have of Diego Simeone’s teams. Yes, they will work hard and be typically dogged, but they’re much less defensively focused than in the past. Mostly because, according to their manager, they don’t have the defensive strength of old, and so lean into the qualities they have higher up the pitch. Anyone who watched their quarter-finals against Barcelona will have seen a team who have plenty of attacking threat, but aren’t going to just sit in and see if you can break them down.
Arsenal, on the other hand, might just be more inclined to do something along those lines. Away from home after a tough Premier League game at the weekend, Mikel Arteta will probably lean into what is, or was anyway, our biggest strength, and that’s being hard to score against and hard to beat. I think it’s perfectly fine to look at the kind of football we saw last night and think that’s more aligned with the way you envisage the game being played, but the obvious cost of that is defensively you’re far less secure. 9 goals were scored last night, but the other way to look at that is 9 conceded.
That really doesn’t align with how our manager thinks, and when you reach the semi-finals of the biggest European competition for the second consecutive season – for the first time in the club’s history – I don’t think we can complain too much about that sort of approach. Regardless of what anyone says, if being more adventurous going forward meant we let in as many as either side last night, there would be plenty of grumbles. I want us to be better offensively, we clearly lack the elite talent of some other sides, but the balance has to be right at this level.
Bayer Leverkusen away in the Round of 16 was a grind, but we came back to London with a draw, and finished the job at home in a very professional way. A late Kai Havertz goal in Lisbon was enough to see us win our own quarter-final. So while football is a strange beast and games can surprise you, I’d be astonished if tonight wasn’t more in line with those games than the end to end pinball stuff we’ve seen elsewhere.
In terms of the team, I assume Viktor Gyokeres will start up front in the absence of Kai Havertz, and let’s remember he scored twice against Atletico in the league phase. That one is obviously distinct from tonight, as was our 2-0 win over PSG at the same stage last season, but it’s still something you hope will stand his confidence in good stead. As much as possible, I think we need as many techincal players as possible around him. On the left it could be Leandro Trossard, or Eberechi Eze who is fit enough to travel after his withdrawal against Newcastle, but you can’t help worry about his fitness a little bit in a hard-running game, not to mention the form of the Belgian who hasn’t scored a goal since December. Does Gabriel Martinelli’s European goalscoring record this season give the manager something to think about, or is that something to keep in reserve if needed?
On the right, the temptation must be to start Bukayo Saka whose quality gives the team more potency, and the opposition something more to think about, but again the fitness issues raise a question or two. Is that Achilles good enough to do what we need him to tonight? How much do we have to consider what we need from him at the weekend, and potentially next week when we face what’s likely to be a huge second leg? Does the selection at right-back, with a choice between Ben White and Cristhian Mosquera play a part? We could potentially see a return of the White, Saka, Odegaard triangle, but it feels like it’s been a long time since that trio started, and I wonder if, away from home, we might err on the side of slight defensive caution with the young Spaniard.
We’ll find out later on, but with so much focus on the Premier League, and understandably so, let’s not overlook what a fantastic opportunity we have in Europe. It’s only the fourth time in our history we’ve made the semi-finals of this competition, and this is a trophy we’ve never won. It creates an interesting dynamic with this tie, as Atletico have nothing to play for in La Liga, they’re safe in the Champions League places, and they have their own painful history in this competition to try and put right. For them, it’s all eyes on this prize while we compete on two fronts. I think they’ll want to have a real go at home in front of their own fans, which could leave space for us to exploit if we can be efficient in those moments, but make no mistake, we’re going to have to work our arses off to get a result tonight.
Mikel Arteta says:
We know the difficulty of the match, but I think we have shown in Europe, in any ground, what we are capable of. We’ve been very consistent, and tomorrow we have to play with that confidence, with that desire and that will, to come here to win the game.
This is the status that we want, and we have earned it through incredible work, passion and quality in the last nine months. Now is the moment to make a statement, and show how good we are, how much we want it, and make it happen. It’s clear, the opportunity is in front of us, and we have to attack it.
Let’s hope that’s what we can do. We are in classic one game at a time territory right now. We have to give everything we have tonight, and then see who we have and what we can do against Fulham, but for now it’s all about Atletico.
Right, I’ll leave it there for now. As ever we’ll bring you live blog coverage later and all the post-game stuff on Arseblog News too.
Catch you later!
