Kai Havertz’s last-minute winner in Lisbon last night put Arsenal 90 minutes away from a second consecutive Champions League semi-final.
If, having read that sentence, your first thought is “yeah, but the performance…”, then I will say to you now, this is not the article for you and feel free to step away, I won’t judge you. Being real, I’m unlikely to ever find out.
Before last night’s game had even finished, I was fending off complaints from my best mate Luke about our style of football as if his team, Everton, hadn’t deployed a back six when we visited them before Christmas. Luke was even kind enough to pass on comments from one of his best mates, Julian – Julian is, of course, a Spurs fan and – apparently – we’re all in denial about the football we play.
Personally, I think that Mikel Arteta choosing to send his team out as he does is a reaction to the Premier League his football team now play in. It’s a symptom where we are often cast as the cause.
That said, I don’t really care what a Spurs fan thinks about us. Honestly, I don’t really care what Luke thinks about us. I mean, I’d like him to enjoy our games, but ultimately, Arsenal Football Club are not in the business of entertaining Luke, or neutrals, they are in the business of winning football matches and – we hope – trophies.
And last night represented another step on the journey towards – again, we hope – Budapest and Champions League glory. It was a Champions League quarter final, away from home at the Jose Alvalade, with Sporting on a 17-game winning run at the ground.
Sporting had scored at least two goals in all of their Champions League home games this season, famously overturning a three-goal deficit with five of their own against Bodo Glimt.
Were we ever likely to turn the game into a basketball contest? Unlikely. For me, I was perfectly happy to see us keep it tight, control the game and take a draw back to London. The late winner was a bit of a bonus really. That it came after a lovely bit of football from Gabriel Martinelli and Havertz, even better.
To Arsenal fans of a certain vintage, games like these will be reminiscent of European campaigns of the mid-nineties as, led by George Graham, Arsenal made their way to Cup Winners’ Cup glory in 1994 and coming up just short in defence of that cup a year on. Those games weren’t a lot of fun either.
I guess the difference then was I usually just had my uncle and Granddad to talk to about them, whereas now every Arsenal fan on the planet can share their view with, well, just about every Arsenal fan on the planet.
And, apparently, some of those Arsenal fans think we should have been able to play Sporting off their own pitch. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to see Martin Odegaard spot a runner wide and play the ball into his path rather than turning inside and recycling just once, or maybe even twice. But I can also understand he’s just back from injury and has returned to action just as the season is threatening to turn into a vapour cloud the size of Nebraska. It’s a lot to take on.
I wonder how the Arsenal internet would have received the performances of those George Graham teams 30+ years ago. The borefest in Turin as we ground out a 0-0 against Torino, the silly Ian Wright yellow card against PSG which ruled him out of the final, Arsenal going into that final with a midfield of Ian Selley and Steve Morrow alongside Paul Davis. Up against the likes of Zola, Tomas Brolin and Tino Asprilla, no less. The year after, as George Graham’s reign crumbled to dust, we made it back to the final, thanks largely to the brilliance of Ian Wright up top who scored in every game up until the final and an incredibly obdurate campaign from David Seaman.
If anyone really didn’t deserve that year’s final to finish the way it did, it was definitely David.
Anyway, where am I going with all of this? Not sure really. I absolutely acknowledge the attendant irony of me, just an Arsenal fan with an opinion, on the internet complaining about other Arsenal fans, with opinions, on the internet, but I think we have to choose to remain positive about what we’re seeing as the games get ticked off.
All of us are dealing with different levels of hope, expectation, fear – the grinding fear of this season collapsing all around us just as we’re within touching distance of a goal 22 years in the making. I guess I’m using this column, this week, as a call to unity. If you’re in any of the grounds Arsenal are going to be in between now and the end of May, the players will need you, need your support. If it all goes wrong, there will be plenty of time for recriminations, but for now, it’s “come on you Gunners!”
Remember where we started this, on the brink of a second Champions League semi-final in a year. You’d have signed up for that 5 years ago, wouldn’t you? Remember the years we were told it was enough just to take part and don’t let your mates try and tell you we’re not going in the right direction. When we do win it won’t be for them, it will be for you and everyone else connected with this great club.
Does it say something that I’ve managed to write something about last night’s game and barely mentioned it? Well, I couldn’t possibly comment.