After Liverpool’s day in the sun and Manchester City booking their annual place in the FA Cup final, it now feels like Arsenal’s turn. At some point soon Mikel Arteta and his team are going to have to win something.
The Emirates looked a spring treat as Paris Saint-Germain arrived to train. The French capital will be looking no finer this week. Arsenal’s immediate task is to ensure it all feels a little different when the first leg of this semi-final begins this evening.
It all proved too much for Real Madrid in the last eight here earlier this month. A sizzling atmosphere, Declan Rice’s right foot and Real’s frailties combined to give the Gunners a 3-0 advantage that they never looked like giving up. Now they have to find a way to do it again.
They have it in them, for sure, and Arteta struck the right tone. It was one of optimism and belief and, most importantly of all, enjoyment.
‘Bring your boots,’ said the Arsenal manager, as he implored maximum involvement from the Emirates crowd. If his side pull this off that may turn out to be one of the most memorable quotes of the season.
As he had before the tie with Real, Arteta spoke here of making history. His winger, the talented Brazilian Gabriel Martinelli, described this as the biggest night of his career. Some may say it’s all a little giddy. This is a semi-final, after all. It is not even the final hurdle between a modest season becoming an unforgettable one.
Mikel Arteta has banged the drum ahead of Arsenal’s semi-final first leg against PSG
It all proved too much for Real Madrid in the last eight and Arsenal need a repeat of that night
An optimistic Arteta has implored maximum involvement from the Emirates crowd
It worked for Arteta against the Spanish champions, though. He stood in the technical area that night and watched the European champions wilt in the face of the pressure applied by his team. It makes perfect sense, then, to return to themes that have worked once already.
‘It’s the biggest game the Emirates has seen since we built it,’ said Arteta. ‘We are making beautiful history but want so much more.
‘We saw the way we approached the Real Madrid game. We won’t change who we are. We have to go on to the pitch convinced we’ll beat them.’
Luis Enrique’s PSG are a very good side, especially on their own ground. They are a proper team now, rather than the collection of individuals that found various ways not to win the Champions League over the last decade.
The spirit of the collective and the cohesion that has brought has made them a much more formidable opponent than in days of yore.
They are not invincible, however. They are not unbeatable. Enrique, meanwhile, carried a whole bag of chips on his shoulders as he sat and bristled before the travelling French media here.
Years at the top of the game as a player for Real and Barcelona and then as coach of Barca and Spain should really have rendered the 54-year-old manager immune to the kind of analysis and examination that follows big personalities around. Seemingly not.
‘Whatever I say you will criticise me,’ Enrique said. The manager of PSG – whoever he is – will always carry the burden of Champions League expectation. The French champions have never won European club football’s biggest prize and that sense of inferiority follows them everywhere like cheap perfume.
Luis Enrique’s PSG are a very good side but they are not invincible nor unbeatable
Desire Doue was magnificent in the quarter-final first leg victory against Aston Villa
Enrique refused to concede here that the English Premier League is the best in Europe but at the same time tried to make much of the fact his team have already knocked out its new champions Liverpool.
What he didn’t discuss in detail was the fact Aston Villa – seventh in the Premier League – gave them a hell of a scare in Birmingham as his side squeezed through 5-4 on aggregate.
Perhaps that quarter-final tie showed us the best and worst of Enrique’s team. Brilliant at times in Paris, where the flying wide players Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Desire Doue were magnificent, they were vulnerable a week later in coughing up a 2-0 lead at Villa Park to lose 3-2.
That tends to be a dangerous combination in Europe and Arsenal should be encouraged. The way Arteta’s team – 2-0 victors over PSG in London in the group stages last October – have fallen off the pace in the Premier League will concern the Gunners manager.
Those who suggest it has merely been a by-product of too much focus on this competition are wrong. The malaise started in February.
Nevertheless, Arsenal will have taken so much from what they did to Real and there should be no sense of hesitancy now.
Given the dominance PSG enjoyed at home to Villa and indeed to Liverpool – who they somehow managed to lose to after enjoying all the possession and chances in Paris – Arsenal will perhaps feel they need to win and that should do much for the spectacle.
‘It is a moment to say, “This is who we are”,’ added Arteta, failing only to produce an actual drum to bang. ‘We want to play with that mindset. The players know everything. Now it’s about, where are their limits? How far are they able to go?’
Arsenal will perhaps feel they need to win and that should do much for the spectacle
But Arteta’s team are without a trophy in five years. The clock is ticking on that
Having won their own domestic league even earlier than Liverpool won theirs – they are 20 points clear of second place Marseille with three games left – PSG’s form has dropped a little. They have won just one of their last four games and lost 3-1 at home to Nice on Friday.
Maybe that contributed a little to Enrique’s irascible mood. Whatever the case, the contrast between the two managers was stark. There is one other difference between the two men, however. Enrique has the French title while Arteta looks as though he is about to collect a third successive Premier League second place.
Potential continues to seep from Arsenal pores but at some point it must be realised. Arteta’s team are without a trophy in five years. The clock is ticking on that. This may yet be a special night in Arsenal history – but only if they win.
