Mikel Arteta will have regrets despite a campaign that saw the Gunners overcome big setbacks.
Patience a virtue for Arsenal but season feels like one that got away
END OF THE ROAD: Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta with Martin Odegaard after the final whistle in Paris.
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MIKEL ARTÉTA had not long left his dressing room full of beaten players, some still teary-eyed, when he walked into the press conference room in the bowels of the still smoke-filled, still raucous Parc des Princes stadium. He effectively told the sympathetic media his Arsenal side were the best in Europe and only lost their Champions League semi-final two legs to Paris Saint-Germain because their goalkeeper was too good.
Fair to say emotions were running high and most here in the French capital thought the best team won, however well Arteta’s men played in parts. The stats show they had better goalscoring chances too. So, let us start the post-mortem calmly and give the Arsenal manager a pass on his decision to back his players so passionately before we dissect where he and they went wrong.
And just how wrong did it go for the coach and his team this season? By most measures it has been a triumph against the odds of injuries and suspensions, but it is hard to see it that way just now.
Yes, they were expected to be Premier League front runners but were already off the pace when star player Bukayo Saka underwent hamstring surgery in December and join the club’s long, crippling injury list. Referees and VAR? They did not get many breaks (see the bizarre penalty awarded against them on Wednesday night as the latest example) but winners overcome such obstacles.
And any right-minded Arsenal fan would have accepted last night’s scenario had anyone predicted Arteta would keep his side in second place and reach the semi-final of the Champions League having beaten Real Madrid home and away without a recognised striker on the books and clunky midfielder Mikel Merino leading the attack for the last few months of the season.
That they went to Paris and created more chances, as they did in last week’s home leg too, is also to their credit. How they missed them and why they were collectively so low on gas and options is another matter.
The last time Arsenal won a European trophy was George Graham’s 1994 Cup-Winners’ Cup heroes of Copenhagen. They won in Paris en route to the final where they beat a Parma side studded with world-class players at their peak. With all due respect to Graham goalscorer Alan Smith and co. that really was a case where the best team lost. One-nil (one shot) to the Arsenal and the defence, spirit and fortune did the rest.
And it was almost if Arteta took some inspiration from Graham’s win-against-all-odds aura by employing some old-school Arsenal tactics. By that, see the introduction of Thomas Partey’s relentless long throw-ins to the PSG penalty area. Might be wrong, but possibly only the first or second looked like possibly leading to a goal.
Then we had goalkeeper David Raya, another one overplayed due to lack of decent backup, showing his passing from the back is not as good as he or his coach think it is. Arteta’s football is not route one, long ball, so why use that tactic in the biggest game of his short managerial career?
Probably because he lacked the creativity at the heart of his side. After near early misses from Declan Rice, Gabriel Martinelli and Martin Odegaard (denied by one of the all-time saves by Donnarumma) it all got a bit too predictable. Did they panic too soon?
PSG were more than happy without the ball and bided their time. An ability to take chances at one end and deny them at the other is what makes winners at this level and Arsenal were lacking at both ends of the pitch.
Would Arteta have more squad options had he rotated his squad more earlier in the season and sacked off the League Cup, for example? We will never know but it is worth analysing ahead of next season. Should they have signed forwards last summer? Yes. Should they have signed attacking players in the January window? Yes.
Should he have been bolder and sent on Ethan Nwaneri, one of the brightest young talents in Europe, with 20 minutes to go and immediately after Saka had scored and sparked a glimmer of hope? Probably, but even the best attacking players in the world miss chances and the best keepers often win matches (see Alison’s display when Liverpool somehow won their first leg here a couple of months ago). That was another clear case of the best team losing, even though they were ultimately triumphant at Anfield.
What next? Anfield, funnily enough. Arsenal go to salute champions Liverpool on Sunday and arrest an alarming slump. Last weekend’s home defeat by Bournemouth was the 10th time they have failed to convert a lead into a victory, dropping 21 points from winning positions to date this season.
The hierarchy not only need to back the boss financially this summer but get the recruitment spot on too. One striker? Probably two. A winger and midfielder? Almost certainly. The final part will be keeping their best players (see William Saliba) and keeping the best players who do stay fit.
There is still a lot of love for Arteta on and off the pitch. He has raised expectations to perhaps unreasonably high levels for a side that had not competed for the major honours for so long. PSG have been in the knock-out stages of the Champions League for the past 13 seasons. Their captain Marquinhos has played in the last 11 of them. Good things come to those who wait, but it is hard not to think Arsenal’s owners will not wait much longer if we are having the same conversations at the end of next season.
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