Five Takeaways From Arsenal’s Underwhelming Night of Champions League History

A goalless draw with Sporting CP sent Arsenal through to the Champions League semifinals with a performance which raised more questions than answers.

Mikel Arteta captured the angst of Arsenal fans. | Marc Atkins/Getty Images

LONDON — Arsenal’s prematch choreography for Wednesday’s Champions League quarterfinal second leg against Sporting CP read: “History in our sights.”

History was achieved as the Gunners advanced to the competition’s semifinals for the second season in succession, the first time the club have ever achieved such a feat in their 140-year existence, but there was a subdued nature to the celebrations.

After a damaging sequence of results on either side of March’s international break, with exits in both domestic cups condemned by lost ground in the Premier League title race, Arsenal had been chasing a performance to match European progression. They will have to settle for the latter in an underwhelming 0–0 draw that produced more questions than answers.

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No Evading the Emirates Angst

Arsenal warmed up for the quarterfinal second leg with a fiery display. | Alex Burstow/Arsenal FC/Getty Images

“No fear. Pure fire,” was Arteta’s demand for the Emirates crowd on Wednesday evening after the fans began to turn for the first time during the weekend defeat to Bournemouth. “Go for it because the opportunity is unbelievable.”

The Arsenal boss got his Promethean demand in a literal sense with the prematch pyrotechnics and there was a crackle to the first rendition of ‘London Forever,’ which was performed a cappella, drowning out the whistles of the boisterous traveling contingent. It didn’t take long for the mood to drop.

There was a shout of “play forward” within the opening five minutes, an early sign of a trend which would continue throughout an edgy contest.

That angst was not limited to the stands. There were several nervy passes, especially in Arsenal’s own half, despite minimal pressure from the visitors, while Arteta was even more wound up than usual. After his side were denied a free kick in a vaguely threatening position with more than 15 minutes left to play, the Basque boss pirouetted on the ball of his shiny dress shoes and whipped his cashmere jumper over his face, like a middle class school kid celebrating a goal in the playground of his private school.

It was fitting that the crowd’s final act of the 90 minutes was a collective exhale of relief as João Simões’s shot whistle narrowly past the post.

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Eberechi Eze Still Trying to Be ‘That Guy’

Eberechi Eze’s style is inherently hit and miss. | Ben STANSALL/AFP/Getty Images

“Walking up to a pitch and believing that you’re that guy,” was the mentality Eberechi Eze, by his own admission was trying to embrace heading into Wednesday’s fixture. The former Crystal Palace playmaker lived up to the billing in Arsenal’s previous Champions League outing at the Emirates, thundering in a stunning goal to settle the tie against Bayer Leverkusen.

There were a few opportunities for Eze to replicate those heroics in the quarterfinal, yet when the ball sat up, he blasted it into the second tier of the stands. That is the difficulty of relying upon a party trick as unpredictable as long-range shots. By their very definition, they are hit and miss.

Eze teased apart the stitching of Sporting’s rearguard with one sly slipped pass in the first half yet, much like the rest of his teammates, struggled to carve open any clear sights of goal.

In the absence of dexterity, Eze’s industry let him down. There was no lack of trying—this is no Liverpool team—but he never quite got the angle of his press right. A good curved run will block out the passing option of the opponent behind the sprinting figure, the player in his “cover shadow.” This is a trick which Martin Ødegaard repeats every match—and repeatedly stymied Sporting with in Lisbon—but one that Eze is still getting the hang of.

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Cloud Lifts Over Martin Zubimendi

Martín Zubimendi has not been at his best recently. | Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC/Getty Images

After the desperately disappointing nature of Arsenal’s loss to Bournemouth on Saturday, Arteta was given the perfect opportunity to tear his players apart in the postmatch press conference. He paused, vibrating ever so slightly with the 1,000-newton jaw clench of a snubbed Tory wife, before tersely replying: “I don’t want to criticize any player, especially here, publicly.”

Fans have shown no such restraint, especially towards Martín Zubimendi.

The summer recruit enjoyed an excellent first two-thirds of his debut season in England, away from the only club he has ever known. But the strain of playing almost every available minute of each match caught up to him in recent weeks.

Zubimendi occupies that delicate role of Arsenal’s pressure valve at the base of midfield, the avenue through which the team’s buildup is constantly funnelled. On an increasing number of occasions, these passing sequences have broken down at Zubimendi’s feet. But not on Wednesday.

Unlike Arsenal’s recent opponents—City, Southampton and Bournemouth—Sporting did not religiously press their hosts. Yet, despite routinely sitting off in a green-and-white block around the halfway line, Arsenal still managed to give the ball away in their own defensive third.

It was David Raya and William Saliba, rather than Zubimendi, who were the guilty parties and it took several slices of good fortune for parity to be preserved during the first half. Zubimendi fared well and helped Arsenal grind out the goalless draw before picking up the Player of the Match trophy.

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Patience With Ben White Runs Out

Cristhian Mosquera (left) made his first start in a Champions League knockout game on Wednesday. | Alex Burstow/Arsenal FC/Getty Images

In the continued absence of Jurriën Timber, Ben White had started Arsenal’s previous five games coming into Wednesday’s fixture, his longest run in the first team for almost two years. It showed. After being largely ignored during the Carabao Cup final defeat, White made sure he stole the spotlight in a disastrous series of outings against Southampton and Bournemouth.

Ultimately it proved to be one clanger too many for Arteta. While Timber remained sidelined, 21-year-old center back Cristhian Mosquera was thrust onto the right side of defense for his first ever start in a Champions League knockout tie.

Arteta’s reluctant rotation proved effective. Mosquera lacks the incisiveness which White can provide while at his best but there has been little danger of that attacking impetus in recent weeks. Instead, the Spain international shored up the backline and offered himself as a willing recipient of a pass in Arsenal’s buildup.

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Front Three for Man City Takes Shape

Kai Havertz is surely in line for a start on Sunday. | David Price/Arsenal FC/Getty Images

For many teams, the frontline which starts a decisive Champions League quarterfinal would be the same one selected for the most important game of the top-flight season. Yet, Gabriel Martinelli, Viktor Gyökeres and Noni Madueke managed to convincingly play themselves out of contention for Sunday’s trip to Manchester City.

Madueke was the brightest of a wayward trio before ending the match hobbling around the side of the pitch. Max Dowman once again showed an impressive burst of verve and fizz, presenting Arteta with a probing headache for the Etihad visit. Leandro Trossard has so many more layers of subtlety to his game than Martinelli—who has proven to be more effective off the bench anyway—while Havertz could prove to be the key.

Every ball fired up to Gyökeres rebounds straight off the burly Swede. A return for Havertz as the team’s focal point—rather than Gyökeres’s unconvincing sidekick—should theoretically give Arsenal the option of going over the top of City’s press. As they have routinely proven, this current iteration of the Gunners have shown none of the composure or craft to play through Pep Guardiola’s side.

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