Arsenal’s quadruple hunt was halved in the space of a week, and their UEFA Champions League hopes were given a stern test by a Sporting Lisbon side that only just squeezed past Bodo/Glimt to reach the competition’s quarterfinals.
Sporting, who had to come from 3-0 down following the first leg against Norway’s Bodo, are seven points off leaders Porto in the Portuguese top flight, but were more than a match for the English Premier League leaders in Lisbon on Tuesday, with only a late Kai Havertz strike separating the sides.
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The 1-0 win favours Mikel Arteta’s side ahead of the second leg in London next week, but it was another game that left the Gunners with as many questions as answers.
Back-to-back defeats leading into the game – in the League Cup final against Manchester City and the FA Cup quarterfinals against second-tier Southampton – have left Arteta’s team in danger of a late-season slump.
Having finished third in the Premier League for the last three seasons, their chances of dropping the “nearly men” tag look good this year.
They hold a nine-point lead at the top of the English table, with seven games to play, although Pep Guardiola’s City in second do have a game in hand.
Even substitute Havertz’s injury-time winner in Lisbon, however, could not paper over the cracks of another troubled performance for the Gunners, and against a side that have never made it beyond the quarterfinals of the competition.
Sporting had 10 shots on goal compared with Arsenal’s seven, while five were on target compared with the Gunners’ four.
Arteta said going into the match in Lisbon that the questions about his team are to be expected, despite their Premier League lead and having won all but one of its games in the Champions League this season.
“It’s been like this for the last nine months, and that’s going to continue; that’s never going to change when you play at this level for this club,” he said ahead of the match at Estadio Jose Alvalade.
“There’s always going to be a question mark, and that’s it. You have to live the present; you have to deliver it every day.”
Arteta’s intensity in full focus as Arsenal wobble again
The question mark is not only over his side, though.
The Spaniard struggles to hide his emotions, particularly in defeat, and Al Jazeera understands that this is an area of concern for certain members of Arsenal’s hierarchy, who believe the former midfielder’s intensity at crucial moments could be holding his side back.
The slump, marked by the first time they have been beaten in successive games in this campaign, has plunged the club’s long-suffering fans into a bout of soul-searching.
The north Londoners have not won a trophy since the 2020 FA Cup, and their “nearly men” tag has raised doubts about their ability to finally land silverware.
Arteta, however, is convinced they can handle the mounting pressure of bidding to win the Champions League for the first time, while aiming to finally lift the Premier League trophy after a 22-year wait.
“In the season, you always have moments, normally two or three. This is the first moment that we have with a certain level of difficulty,” Arteta said in the build-up to the match in Lisbon.
“I love my players; what they have done for nine months. I’m not going to criticise them because we lost a game in the manner that they are putting their bodies through everything.
“I’m going to defend them more than ever. Someone has to take responsibility. That’s me, and we have the most beautiful period of the season ahead of us,” Arteta added.
Arsenal’s pain could provide Champions League gain
Arsenal routed Sporting 5-1 in Lisbon in the league phase of the Champions League, a far cry from the continued nervy display by the Gunners on Tuesday.
The soundbites from Christian Norgaard, which struck an upbeat note in the face of adversity heading into the Sporting match, would have been something that those doubting Arteta’s temperament were relieved to hear in the halls of power at Emirates Stadium.
“The message is to have a positive body language, to talk with your teammates, with the coaching staff. Now is not the time to go with our heads down for too long,” the Arsenal midfielder said on Monday.
“It’s fine to be frustrated and also to analyse what went wrong, but then we also have to look forward, because there are so many big games coming up for this club.”
Arteta did talk about his side turning the pain of the last two results into gain, drumming into his players to embrace the defeats, while fighting off outside noise about yet another late-season swoon.
“What you have to be is clear,” he said on Monday. “Instead of panic, understand if that happens, why it happened, and bring clarity. And when you analyse that and you accept that, you will be better. That’s it, and that’s the thing that we have to do.
“Have some perspective on how difficult it is. Feel that pain, feel that emotion, and use it to be better and to improve. There are a few things that we have discussed internally, and I’m very convinced that we’re going to see that.”
The players were filmed partaking in team-building exercises in training on Monday, alongside their usual footballing drills ahead of the match in an attempt to shake off the blip.
“We have full belief,” Arsenal goalkeeper David Raya told Prime after the game, in which his ability was hailed as the key performance on the night.
“We absolutely believe [we can win the Champions League]. If you don’t believe, you are never going to win it, no matter what you go through.
“We need to go back to what we are, be ourselves, learn from losing two competitions straight away, and learn from the pain in the belly.
“That is the main message to send out there.”
Would the real Arsenal please stand up
The win also cheered his manager, but Arteta could not hide from the areas of concern, which threaten to derail a season that has arguably promised more than any other in the club’s history.
“I’m very happy to win away in the quarterfinal of the Champions League,” the Arsenal manager told Prime.
“When we got into the final third, we needed to be crisper and more efficient.
“We lacked the final pass, but a clinical moment won it for us in the end.
“When you get to this stage of the season, everyone has to make an impact. We need the big players to turn up and win us the game.
“We had to reveal ourselves today, and I talk a lot about identity, and we saw that tonight.”
Whether the failings of the last few seasons, and the feared restrictions that Arteta’s identity placed on the side, have passed will only be fully revealed if at least one piece of major silverware is finally lifted once again by the North Londoners.
