Arsenal’s quadruple title bid was halved in a week and their UEFA Champions League hopes were put to a severe test by a Sporting Lisbon side who narrowly defeated Bodo/Glimt to reach the quarter-finals.
Sporting were forced to come back from a 3-0 deficit following the first leg against Norway’s Bodo, and although they are seven points behind leaders Porto in Portugal’s top flight, they were more than even with the leaders of the English Premier League in Lisbon on Tuesday, with only Kai Havertz’s late goal separating the two sides.
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The 1-0 win gave Mikel Arteta’s side the advantage for next week’s second leg in London, but it was also a game that left the Gunners with as many questions as answers.
A series of early defeats, including against Manchester City in the League Cup final and second-tier Southampton in the FA Cup quarter-finals, have left Arteta’s side at risk of a late-season slump.
They have finished third in the Premier League in the past three seasons, and there is a good chance that they will shed the ‘mostly men’ tag this year.
They remain nine points clear at the top of England with seven games remaining, while second-placed City, coached by Josep Guardiola, still have a game in hand.
But even Havertz’s stoppage-time winner, who came on as a substitute against Lisbon, could not overcome the cracks in yet another troubled performance for the Gunners, against a side who have never made it past the quarter-finals in this competition.
Sporting had 10 shots on target compared to Arsenal’s seven, and five shots on target compared to the Gunners’ four.
Arteta said ahead of the match in Lisbon that he expected questions about his team, despite leading the Premier League and winning all but one of this season’s Champions League games.
“It has been like this for the past nine months and it will continue to be like this. As long as I play at this level for this club, it will never change,” he said ahead of the match at the Estadio Jose Alvalade.
“There’s always a question mark, but that’s it. You have to live in the moment. You have to deliver it every day.”
Arteta’s intensity is on full blast as Arsenal wobble again
But question marks aren’t just on his side.
The Spaniard has struggled to hide his emotions, especially during defeats, and Al Jazeera understands this is a concern for some members of Arsenal’s hierarchy, who believe the former midfielder’s intensity in key moments could be holding the team back.
This slump, which saw them lose consecutive games for the first time this season, has forced the club’s fans, who have endured it for many years, into a period of self-exploration.
The North Londoners have not won a trophy since the 2020 FA Cup, and the ‘almost men’ tag has cast doubt on their ability to ultimately win silver.
But Arteta is confident he can withstand the mounting pressure of winning his first Champions League as he aims to finally lift the Premier League trophy for the first time in 22 years.
“During the season, there are always two or three moments. This is the first moment you experience with a certain level of difficulty,” Arteta said in the preparations for the game in Lisbon.
“I love the players, what they’ve done for nine months. I’m not going to criticize them just because they put their bodies on the line and did everything and we lost the game.
“I will protect them more than ever. Someone has to take responsibility and that is me. The best part of the season is ahead,” Arteta added.
Arsenal’s pain could lead to Champions League victory
Arsenal beat Sporting 5-1 in Lisbon in the Champions League, but it was a far cry from the suspense that the Gunners continued on Tuesday.
Christian Norgaard’s upbeat soundbite in the face of adversity in the lead-up to the game against Sporting will have come as a relief to those doubting Arteta’s mettle in the halls of power at the Emirates Stadium.
“The message is to have positive body language and talk to your team-mates and the coaching staff. This is not the time to keep your head down for too long,” the Arsenal midfielder said on Monday.
“It’s good to be frustrated and analyze what went wrong, but at the same time we have to look forward because this club has so many big games coming up.”
Arteta certainly spoke of how his team turned the pain of the last two results into gain, encouraging his players to accept defeat while fighting off outside noise of another late-season slump.
“It’s clear what I have to do,” he said Monday. “Instead of panicking, when it happens, understand why it happened and bring clarity. And when you analyze it and accept it, you get better. That’s what it’s all about and that’s what we have to do.”
“Have some perspective on how difficult it is. Feel that pain, feel that emotion, and use it to get better and improve. There are some things we’ve talked about internally, and I’m very confident it will happen.”
The players were filmed taking part in team-building exercises at training on Monday, while also going through regular soccer drills to shake off any blips ahead of the game.
“We have full faith,” Arsenal goalkeeper David Raya told Prime after the match, with his ability hailed as a key performance on the night.
“We absolutely believe (that we can win the Champions League). If you don’t believe, you will never win it no matter what you do.
“We need to get back to who we are, be ourselves, learn from losing two tournaments in a row and learn from the pain in our stomachs.
“That’s the main message that needs to get out there.”
Will the real Arsenal please stand up?
The manager was delighted with the win, but Arteta could not hide from his concerns. This is because it threatens to derail what was perhaps the most anticipated season in the club’s history.
“I’m very happy to win away in the quarter-finals 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 last pass, but in the end the decisive moment gave us the victory.
“At this stage of the season, everyone has to make an impact. We need our big players to come out and win games.
“Today we had to reveal ourselves. I talk a lot about identity, and tonight we saw that.”
Whether the failures of the past few seasons and the feared limitations that Arteta’s identity placed on the side have passed will only become fully clear if at least one major piece of silverware is finally released by the North Londoners again.
