There is a tide in the affairs of men which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Arsenal, having failed to capitalise on so many opportunities over the past few years, have suddenly and not entirely expectedly seized their chance. A week ago, their course seemed uncertain, the waters choppy; quite abruptly, the skies have cleared and, the wind in their sails, Arsenal are sailing on towards potential glory.
Atlético tested them and they came through it to reach their first Champions League final in 20 years. Whether it’s Paris Saint-Germain or Bayern they will meet in Budapest, that challenge will be very different to this one but the important thing is they are there. It was perhaps inevitable that if they were going to go through it would be 1-0, not just for old times’ sake but because this was an old-fashioned kind of semi‑final, won not through the sort of attacking pyrotechnics of the first leg of PSG v Bayern, but through discipline and resolve.
Arsenal shut down Atlético comprehensively; beyond a couple of penalty appeals in quick succession early in the second half, there were very few moments of peril. Given Mikel Arteta’s obsession with minimising risk, this was a win born of his conception of the game. The celebrations at the end, as the rain swept through the fireworks, felt like an outpouring of relief, but perhaps less for the 90 minutes that had immediately preceded it than the years before, all those exits, all those near-misses, all those crushing eliminations by Bayern. Arsenal are probably the biggest club in Europe never to have won the Champions League; they will be second favourites for the final whomever they face, but they at least have a chance.
For Atleti, who themselves are without a Champions League success despite playing in three finals, there was more frustration. Diego Simeone’s late yellow card was predictable but his resigned expression at half-time perhaps more apt. This was a game in which his side barely threatened.
The specifics have changed over the 15-year course of Simeone’s reign as he has developed and Atlético have developed with him, but the pattern of these nights remains the same. Atlético absorb. They fight. They have an intensity and a ferocity that unsettles even the most gifted opponents. They make occasionally surprising inroads. And slowly their opponents’ sense of fear mounts. The challenge often seems as much psychological as technical: a relentless assault of extreme motivation.
It’s immensely to Arsenal’s credit, then, that they retained their composure. This is a side whose character has regularly been questioned over the past three years but there is an odd sense in which roles seem to have been reversed in the 2-1 defeat at Manchester City. Arsenal may have lost but there was something in that performance that seems improbably to have restored confidence, almost as though losing while taking the game to City was more valuable than drawing in more cautious style would have been. Or perhaps finding themselves suddenly in the role of hunter rather than hunted was invigorating and cleared minds.
As City have looked fatigued and anxious, Arsenal beat Newcastle and swept Fulham aside. The mood before the second leg had changed completely from that before the first leg. Last week Arsenal were fretful, still worried that a season that had promised so much might end in quadruple disappointment. This week, after City’s draw at Everton, they are suddenly close enough to the Premier League trophy to smell the polish, and now they have a Champions League final to come as well.
There was a calmness and a confidence to Arsenal. As Atlético fizzed and growled, they just kept playing. Even the goal that gave them the lead spoke of a self-belief that has not always been there. When William Saliba played Viktor Gyökeres through, it would have been very easy for the Sweden international to snatch at the chance and attempt a shot from an unpromising angle. But Gyökeres had the wherewithal to wait, compose himself and pick out Leandro Trossard at the far post, creating the shooting opportunity that led ultimately to Bukayo Saka turning in the rebound.
It wasn’t the prettiest goal, but the most important goals don’t have to be aesthetically pleasing. And this could be a goal that Arsenal remember for ever as part of a late-season surge to achievement. Their attention now turns to Saturday and City’s home game against Brentford. If Pep Guardiola’s side fail to win there, Arsenal would go to West Ham with the opportunity to open a lead that would leave them needing to beat only Burnley or Crystal Palace to lift the title.
At this stage of the season, things can move extremely quickly. The gnawing fear of failure has gone, replaced by a growing sense of purpose that could make this the greatest month in the club’s history.
