Gavin Cooney

AND SO THE final whistle blew and loosed the feeling that Arsenal fans have been denied in spite of their teams’ consistency: a pure and giddy euphoria. 

Arsenal’s season has been one long grinding of teeth, and this wrestle with Atletico Madrid was another taut and fraught occasion, but, for Mikel Arteta, all is well with end well. 

They go to Budapest and while they will have more than a puncher’s chance against the glass jaws of Paris Saint-Germain or Bayern Munich, they will undoubtedly be underdogs. 

Arsenal deserved to progress over both legs against Atletico: they were comfortably better in both first halves and, unlike in the first leg, they hardly created a chance after the break tonight.  This had much to do with the poverty of Atletico’s attack, but to attribute it solely to their limitations would be to do a disservice to Arsenal’s ability to chloroform a football match. 

Mikel Arteta recently alighted on a more bold line-up and stuck with it tonight, with Declan Rice anchoring midfield behind Ebreche Eze and Myles Lewis-Skelly, with their secure but conservative Martins left on the bench. But there was no instant spark or charge from Arsenal to match the rollicking atmosphere, instead they did as they always do under Mikel Arteta: they took their accredited positions and built slowly, slowly, and safely, safely. 

The converse of this was that they were rock-solid against any putative Atletico counter-attacks, while smothering to the point they made their opponents look utterly clueless. There was a long period of the first half in which Atletico simply booted the ball out of play simply for the sake of something to do. Diego Simeone often resembles some dark conductor on the touchline, orchestrating all of what is in front of him, but tonight he looked a man apart while raving madly and fruitlessly at the sky, occasionally chastising his poor, besuited assistant.

If there was a criticism of Arsenal in the first half it was that some of their possession was staid and pedestrian, and it took Viktor Gyokeres to break the stalemate. He sprinted in behind to take a pass before dinking the ball to the back post for Leandro Trossard, whose rifled shot was parried by Jan Oblak only for Saka to react fastest. 

Gyokeres has suddenly snapped into form and impact at a crucial point of the season: this may have been his best performance in an Arsenal shirt, while it has been undoubtedly his best week at the club. He consistently held his own physically against Atleti’s hopelessly impetuous defenders, and perhaps should have settled Arsenal’s nerves when he fired over from Piero Hincapie’s second-half cross. 

Arsenal assumed their deeper positions after the break and sought to play on the counter attack, where they were frankly bailed out by Atletico’s chronic lack of quality. When Saliba erred in heading back to Raya, Simeone’s son was much too slow in converting into an open net as Gabriel recovered, while Alexander Sorloth’s cameo was a disasterclass, fluffing a glorious chance toward the end by kicking the ball against himself. That seemed to suck any kind of residual hope from Atletico, and Arsenal coasted through the five added minutes. 

This was partly down to the fact Atletico’s finishing XI was limp, with Julian Alvarez and the great Griezmann withdrawn with 20 minutes remaining. Accuse of us churlishness, but Arsenal have so far benefitted from a remarkably easy draw: Bayer Leverkusen, Sporting, and Atletico Madrid is a knockout run more fitting of the Europa League. Arsenal partisans will no doubt say this is a break deserving of the team that topped the league phase. Liverpool’s will point out they did the same last year and ran into PSG in the last-16.

Arsenal will be outsiders in the final regardless of whom they face in Budapest, though they are guaranteed to give a better showing than the senescent Inter Milan did last year. Plus,  they may even pitch up to that game as Premier League champions. For all the apparent torture of Mikel Arteta’s means, Arsenal fans can now see the end, and they are viewing from a precipice of great glory.