LONDON — A step in the right direction and precious little more. It is faint praise to say that Arsenal were better than they were against Bournemouth, their worst performance in years delivered at the most unproductive moment. For better and worse, this was at least an identifiable version of Mikel Arteta’s side.
To start with the good, this is still a team that can roll through two legs of a Champions League quarterfinal giving up exactly an expected goal. When the nerves were growing in the stands of the Emirates Stadium, Arsenal locked this tie down. After a flurry of Sporting CP pressure just after the hour, the hosts locked down. From Maxi Araujo shot in the 67th minute, Sporting didn’t get the ball into the opposition area until the 90th minute. They didn’t take a shot until the last kick of the game, a desperate heave from Joao Simoes. Even before them, what few chances the Portuguese champions had came because William Saliba and David Raya gave them away. When Arsenal really lock in, it is a triumph to get a shot at them.
You might not like it, especially when it’s Bayern Munich and Real Madrid trading haymakers on the other channel, but locking the opposition out of your penalty area is an example of what peak Champions League performance looks like. Chelsea in 2021, Manchester City two years later: when the Premier League finds a way to conquer Europe, it has been on the back of the competition’s best defense. With five goals conceded in 12 games, there is no disputing that Arsenal have that. The industry with which their tired legs tracked back — particularly Gabriel Martinelli’s explosive recovery run in the first half — is a sign that the tumult of the last few weeks has not robbed this team of their superpower.
“I see them track back when we lose the ball, the habits that they have, it’s just amazing,” said Arteta. “That’s why I know what they are doing, these players. There is a reason why we are the only English team in the competition, because this league and this schedule takes the hell out of you and it’s very difficult to do what we’ve done.
“We are not perfect, we need to improve things, that’s for sure, we recognise that. But there’s value in what these players have done because they deserve it.”
Now, the counter to all that, Sporting might not be the harshest opponents this stage of the competition can throw up but Mikel Arteta made his own luck in the league phase by guiding Arsenal to eight wins out of eight. The draw has opened up for Arsenal, who will next face an Atletico Madrid side they beat 4-0 this season, who conceded as many against Tottenham as their forthcoming opponents as the Gunners across the two legs. These are the breaks Arsenal have earned.
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The good doesn’t stop the shape of the draw or the excellence of the defense. Arsenal’s midfield has looked like it might buckle under the weight of their schedule in recent weeks. Martin Zubimendi required consoling from his teammates on Saturday afternoon. Today, he was their comfort blanket. His man of the match award was fair reward for six of six duels won, his game-leading six ball recoveries and strong carrying through midfield. That Zubimendi, with 64 hours on the pitch in his first season in England, allows Declan Rice to push on with and without the ball. From there, Arsenal can tilt the field in their favor.
What they do with their favorable positions, though. That’s the problem. As CBS Sports wrote on Monday, there are serious issues in terms of the open play threat that Arsenal pose when they line up with Martinelli and Viktor Gyokeres and that those issues are exacerbated with Noni Madueke in the XI. The minute sample is not huge but it grew tonight without any indication that this transitional front three could keep the ball in dangerous areas when Arsenal manoeuvred the ball up to them.
The starting front three had 90 touches. They lost possession 35 times, 17 of them by Madueke. They took a combined five shots worth 0.33 xG. If the ball doesn’t stick, if the threat is so minimal, then Manchester City can roll out the four-man press that throttled the Gunners at Wembley and trust in similar success.
Arsenal visibly improved when Gyokeres made way, Kai Havertz at least offering a consistent outlet when they went long. “With Viktor, I think the game required something else, another kind of nine-man profile so that he could associate us better, so that he could keep the ball,” said Arteta. “There was no space to run, and Kai gave us that. He gave us a lot of consistency.”
Havertz must surely start against Manchester City on Sunday but who surrounds him is a harder question to ask. Madueke limped out with a knee injury and Trossard hardly made a compelling case for the next game with a tired-legged cameo.
Indeed, it was notable that when given the chance to praise his side’s defensive solidity in the final quarter, he instead focused on the late opening that might have killed this tie off. “I prefer to score the goal, and especially when we have the transition when David throws the ball to Leo to finish that action,” he said. “The game’s finished, and it’s over, and we don’t even give that chance after the long throw to suffer in the manner that we did with that action. That’s something to learn and improve as well.”
The profound worry is that it was something to learn and improve several weeks ago. Since the start of March, they have averaged just 1.39 non-penalty xG per game. The absences of Martin Odegaard and Bukayo Saka are being profoundly felt in the buildup and it is hard to believe that they will be anything like their best selves if they even manage to take the field at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday.
Arsenal proved tonight that against an opponent of Sporting’s quality, they can lock it down as they do at their best. Against Erling Haaland and Rayan Cherki, to say nothing of Julian Alvarez and Antoine Griezmann in a few weeks’ time? If you were picking a team to keep a clean sheet, it would be this one, but what happens if Saliba, Raya or anyone else make that one slip that is so hard for even the best defense to mitigate against? As Arteta himself acknowledged, this team is not perfect, but with that attack ahead of them, his defense might have to be.
