When Mikel Arteta came out for his duties before the match before the semifinal of the Tuesday Champions League, he was absolutely radiant. You really have the feeling of a football figure that savors the occasion, and certainly established the correct tone.
That is now the case of the case for two weeks. An ultra -centered Mikel Arteta has partially looked for David Raya and Mikel Merino. The two played under the manager of Paris Saint-Germain, Luis Enrique for Spain, and Arteta and his staff have naturally been interested in additional information.
None of that is really new or course. They are very aware of what PSG can do. One of the reasons why Arsenal is at this stage is because its preparation is very thorough.
However, the new for this group is that stage. This is the first time that the Arteta team has reached a semifinal of the Champions League, and only the third time that Arsenal has throughout its history.
It is a point already made that these are probable that the two largest clubs do not yet have the Champions League, Atlético de Madrid. One of them will have the best possible opportunity to fix that. Both arsenal and the PSG have appeared in a final each, losing in 2006 and 2020, respectively.
The discussion of this story can be a little double edge for club staff. Managers want players to be inspired by him, but they don’t want anyone to.
“Live now, the present is where we are,” said Arteta. Your team is properly enjoying the rare environment that comes with occasions like this.
Arteta has a real leg transmission throughout the week. “You feel the energy,” said the Basque. “It’s unique, probably one of the biggest games of this stage.” Gabriel Martinelli called him “the game of his life.”
There is little like this in football, that crepitant energy that charges accumulation. The modern game can have as many problems, as presented in the fact that Arsenal is assuming a Qatar sports project and how the Champions League itself has become an engine of inequality in football.
That famous theme that begins when it reaches this stage is still stirring. Arteta has frequently told his players that this is the level to which they need to become a battery.
When he spoke with Pep Guardiola before the Real Madrid game, Catalan could not help commenting how he loses that feeling when his teams are not there. This is really what a club like Arsenal should have much more experience. A historical peculiarity is real that one of the great English football institutions does not have a more distinguished legacy in the European Cup.
That is why the main message of Arteta through this campaign has been “to write its own history.” There are real rational reasons why this is the case. In the middle or 13 titles of the Arsenal they arrived before the European Cup was invented. His double winners of 1971 were unfortunate enough to meet the team of the biggest club in history, in the Ajax by Johan Cruyff, in the quarterfinals. George Graham’s two leagues reached the end of the prohibition of English clubs after Heysel, so they were not allowed to enter in 1989-90 and simply did not have that European crucial experience in 1991-92.
The Arsenal of Ursene Wenger developed more experience in the Champions League than almost any other club to constantly reach the last 16. The problem was that it was rarely much further. The 2003-04 season is still the great lost opportunity, when Arsenal was probably the best side in Europe. Wenger has always lamented how that thing that was missing in his reign was: European glory.
When the great Frenchman entered his last years at the club, Arteta himself was there in the center of the field and could see how they lack the level request.
He has reported some of his approach now. The past record could be “irrelevant,” as Arteta said. The lessons of this are not.
“We are very close, and now we have to take the opportunity for this to happen,” said Arteta. Such comments touch another feeling around Arsenal at this time, that complements the feeling of anticipation. It is a growing destination sensation that will do this. The way in which the campaign has evolved, through the destruction of Real Madrid, has only deepened that.
Although injuries during the season would generally encourage more doubts, especially for this semifinal, it has had the opposite effect. He has made players believe they can overcome anything, with arteta constantly stressing that message. It was proposed to declare how “we have overcome problems and challenges.”
Arteta indicated some of this while talking how players “need to visualize it, to be convinced by him.”
A feeling and real football are two very different things, he thought. The close friend of Arteta, Mauricio Pochettino, had a similar sense of destiny before the final defeat of Tottenham Hotspur in 2019 against Liverpool. Arsenal, of course, would emphasize much are not Tottenham.
While the previous victories in adversity could have emboldened to the team, the injuries to one of its main central and front shovels probably have an effect. Arteta would obviously prefer to have Gabriel there, since that PSG attack of force hurricane tells them. At the other extreme, the main importance of Kai Havertz is how much arteta pressure obtains. The absence of Thomas Party’s energy will feel more intensely given the rhythm that the PSG can play.
This is where those additional ideas of players who know Luis Enrique are even more important. The level is as high for games like this that are decided by those details. You just have to consider PSG’s own passage here. As bright as they were in the first leg of the quarterfinals against Aston Villa, they ended up spending excellent margins.
That draw showed vulnerability in Luis Enrique’s team, which has probably not seen Bone the 2-0 Arsenal Spray victory over them at the League stage. The 3-1 defeat of Friday to Nice won the one they have helped. It is a sudden fall at the wrong time.
Those in Arsenal can point out that it is only a natural issue when the entire approach is in the Champions League, as seen in their own recent results of the Premier League.
While the preference of Arteta would be to play in that high -pressure high intensity style that Luis Enrique favors, one of the strengths of Arsenal is his adaptability. They can deepen and defend, in a way that can be crucial in cup football like this. The PSG could have been defeated by Arsenal this season, but this team has not faced a test like this. The teams no longer depend like this. On the other hand, Arsenal faces an attack, and especially Kvicha Kvarathshkelia and Usmane Dembele, who have recently executed the styles.
All of this forms a configuration for a semifinal.
“It’s a beautiful moment,” said Arteta. “Vídallo and Enjoy it.”
