After Bernabeu. Remontada? Yeah, sure..
A defining moment in the trajectory of this Arsenal team.
That wasn't just a win; it was a proper statement. This victory is for Arsenal fans by all means historical and this game will be talked about down the pub for years to come::
It’s our first Champions League semifinal in 17 years. That's longer than some marriages last!
We have eliminated the real European heavyweight in the play-offs for the first time since 2005/06. Some might also count Milan in the 07/08 season, however, this Madrid team still has more individual quality.
For the first time I saw a European giant destroyed over two legs with a 3+ aggregate goal difference.
It’s a historical moment to build further belief into Arteta’s project, particularly in the question of extending the contracts of our stars - Saliba, Saka and Gabriel.
Most importantly for Arteta personally this season has now shown a clear improvement over the last one. Last year’s tie was lost to Bayern in a naive way. While we are far back in the Premier League table, we showed an unseen before maturity in the Champions League. After a 5-1 spanking of Real Madrid, who do we have to really be afraid of?
Shaky first half
It’s fair to admit that the first half was full of nerves, probably from both sides. We had many simple mistakes, ball losses in easy situations. The players who are often thriving in these conditions were being robbed by Madrid players.
The one, who performed especially below the potential level, was our captain Martin Odegaard.
He made mistakes in simple passes. Whenever he had the opportunity to shoot, he was just giving the ball to Saka as quickly as possible. That play was very one dimensional and Real players stopped to cover him properly. In general, his performance did not match my expectation from the captain. The captain should show bravery in the critical moments, lead the team by example and inspire the teammates. Something that Declan has shown in these ties. The way events unfolded, Odegaard himself required some inspiration from the teammates. This definitely has to improve if we plan to rely on him as our #10.
Thankfully, he pulled his socks up in the second half, didn't he? Kept the ball better, stopped getting mugged by the Madrid midfield, and actually had a pop at goal! And his shots weren't half bad either, which makes you wonder why he doesn't have a go more often.
The whole team was a different beast after the break, just as it happened one week ago at the Emirates. Real Madrid started to struggle in keeping up with our tempo and suddenly our players had acres of space and less resistance. I think that pattern could be common with PSG and we have to make sure we end the first half with a comfortable score.
Solid foundations prevailed
Thankfully we had proper cool cucumbers like Timber and Saliba in the first half. Saliba has stalked his old French mate beyond the level of the creepiest fan. He made that big mistake in the second half, but it was just a short loss of concentration. Everybody felt we were through after Saka's goal, and Big Bill was no exception. But that calm defending in the first half was crucial. And Timber? He’s been brilliant again. He constantly makes world-class wingers look bang average. Him and Myles will be key against PSG's speed merchants. Shut them down, and it's half the battle won.
I can’t review our defence without an honourable mention of Jakub Kiwior. The Polish defender had a monster game and I don’t remember any errors from him. He got more confident in the game and started to find teammates with progressive passes. The Polish defender was often criticized by Arsenal fans. But the majority of his performances were when he was introduced into the game without real match fitness. 2 years ago he was thrown into the Liverpool game and looked really bad, but after two full games he looked better than Holding at RCB. Last year he had a solid 2 month stretch at LB, before he was robbed multiple times by electric Leroy Sane. This year he was again thrown into a couple of games and those first games contained some mistakes.
Now after the fourth match in a row he looks well integrated and stable. He got into the UEFA CL team of the week and rightfully so. There were no excuses, he was there for a reason and he made us proud. I don’t think we should sell Kiwior in the summer. I think Arteta should play him from time to time, especially against the teams who don’t have a massive Haaland-like striker. Luckily, PSG is not one of those.
Myles even gave Bellingham a bit of "remontada" banter! While I love to see it, I hope he doesn't become a target for other clubs. He needs to keep his cool because they will now try to wind him up. Especially, since there are numbers to back him up.
What about the goals?
Merino with a penalty won and two assists, didn't do anything too flashy, you'd expect to see those passes in most Arsenal games. But he was so composed in those big moments, wasn't intimidated, just got on with it. Despite his noticeable lack of pace, I actually like him a lot, especially his attitude and his behavior on and off the pitch. Who would know that now we will rely on Merino to carry us through the semifinal clash?
Gabriel Martinelli finally got a big goal, about time! He was electric again, and even put in a shift defensively against Vazquez (who was probably Madrid's best player on the day). Martinelli is especially efficient when he’s released early into space, which is extremely valuable in big games. In games when we don’t face a low block and have these empty spaces on the pitch to sprint into. We don’t leverage Martinelli’s qualities to the fullest, even Gabi himself was a bit mad at Odegaard yesterday. And rightfully so, who else in the team is supposed to have the best vision and the most delicate passing range?
Bukayo Saka bagged a brilliant goal and fully redempted himself for the missed penalty. The penalty in a critical moment of the game is probably still one of the few weak points of this team. I think Arteta needs to approach such moments differently. Under such pressure of the crows and circumstances we need to have the most stress-resistant player take the penalty. The one who can just smash it in the goal without thinking much. So that even if the goalkeeper guesses the side and saves it from the corner, the shooter can’t be blamed. I haven’t seen our team shooting penalties on the training ground, but I would consider Timber and Rice as one of the contenders.
Still, can't complain too much, can we? Great that the team's so solid that the penalty miss didn't cost us. Almost a perfect night. The only other things? Nwaneri not getting eight minutes at Bernabeu was a shame, would have been a massive moment for the development of his clearly visible talent. And Partey's yellow card. Madrid just resorted to simple bullying in the second half, and Partey just lost his head for a second. Hard to blame him when they were clearly in the wrong and getting away with it. Rudiger, the new Sergio Ramos, stood on Myles’s stomach! Bellingham, the spoiled kid, was shoving people all around. They're not used to getting a proper beating, are they? Proper privileged behaviour from Real Madrid, exactly what they are known and hated for.
While you can understand Partey's frustration, now he misses the home leg. Annoying, but if you had to pick one out of Rice, Timber, and Partey to be suspended, you'd probably pick Partey, wouldn't you? It leaves us with a bit of a dilemma for the next game and basically there are three options:
MLS in midfield, Calafiori at LB.
Rice at 6, Zinchenko at left 8.
Merino in midfield, Trossard at false 9.
I think that we need to have our best available full backs on the pitch to close PSG wingers, so the first option's probably out. I also think that Merino works so well at #9, given that he often drops deeper and I wouldn’t want to move him. I would try option number 2. However, given Arteta doesn’t like experiments, he’s probably leaning into option 3, even though it hasn't always worked wonders. But that's a problem for another day.
CL semifinals await
Today’s summary is that we not only eliminated Real Madrid, they never were even close to a comeback. They were not even close to taking this game into extra time. They didn’t have a plan to open us up, except the “Remontada” speeches. Arteta has really shown that he fabricated the best off the ball movement in Europe. That the reserve players understand it and just need a bit of game time under their belt.
The semifinalists of the Champions League are these four teams.
I know there was a lot of complaining from the fans of eliminated teams (Liverpool, Real, City) about the quality of this year’s competition. I think that objectively this is one of the best Champions League semifinals in years. There are four great teams from four different countries, each with their own style and each with a fair chance to win it.
There are talks about a preferred final opponent, but I honestly think PSG is the most dangerous opponent of the remaining three. Barcelona is heavily skewed towards attack and they are very vulnerable at the back. Inter is the absolute opposite - teams will have hard times unpicking their lock, but their attacking quality is not really a problem to us after Real Madrid. PSG is the most balanced team out there. Tall goalkeeper, mobile team, explosive wingers. Their main problem is physicality. We’ve won plenty of duels against them in September last year and even though they have seriously improved as a team, we could still just bully them off the ball.
Ipswich? Don’t bother
Our next game is Ipswich away and with all due respect to the competition, can't say I'm too fussed about it. I don’t care who plays in what position. I only really care about three things:
Nwaneri should finally get a good 80 minutes. It doesn’t matter whether he plays on the regular right wing, at #10 or even at left wing, the boy needs real gaming practice. Recently his time was reduced to 45 minutes to get Saka fit, but now we need to prioritize his development to unleash the visible talent.
We should try a potential midfield set up for PSG. Whatever it is, we have Ipswich and Crystal Palace to flesh out new functions of the players.
No injuries please. If anyone feels pain, then get them out of the pitch. Any substitute would do at this stage. We're on the verge of something special here and it should be spoiled by a rainy evening at Ipswich.
This is a celebration week and I congratulate each and every one of you who went through the hopeless darkness of late Wenger years to see Real Madrid destroyed in two legs! COYG!
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