Morning all.
I have to laugh at some of the headlines in the media. Only they were talking about Arsenal Football Club and a quadruple in the same sentence and now, those same buffoons are writing about have we’ve failed.
Not for one minute did I personally believe we’d win all four competitions, in fact at the beginning of the season, just one would have done for me, the Premier League. Had we been out of the race for the league as 2025 drifted in 2026, yes, I’d have been all for the focus turning to the FA Cup, especially as the route to a Champions League Final looks so tough. Don’t get me wrong, I hoped our name would be on the FA Cup again in May but it won’t be because Mikel Arteta and his players got things so very wrong on Sunday. Or right, depending on how one looks at it. What became evident quite quickly is that a few players who were given a rare opportunity to prove they deserve to be given more playing time, lacked fight. Quality too in the case of one or two.
Tonight the boys are in Portugal to face Sporting Lisbon. Domestically, they are in a good place, albeit five points behind league leaders Porto, although they do have a game in hand. Sporting have been good in the Champions League too, going straight through to the knockouts having finished 7th in the league, their best result coming at home when Luis Suarez scored twice to beat PSG 2-1. Their worst result was a 3-1 defeat away against Bayern Munich. Suarez already has 33 goals to his name this season.
Sporting looked likely to exit the competition in the first knockout fixture after losing 3-0 away to Bodo/Glimt but a 5-0 victory at home after 120 minutes of football, saw them progress.
Sporting haven’t lost a home fixture in this competition so far during this campaign and Arsenal FC have never beaten a Portuguese club on the road. Only three times out of eight have we progressed past this stage of the competition. We might as well give up now… lol
[Arsenal’s Adrian Clarke](https://www.arsenal.com/news/preview-sporting-cp-v-arsenal-1) on tonight’s opposition:
_On home turf, Sporting are a dangerous proposition. Scoring 16 goals across five victories in front of their own supporters in the Champions League this term – and never netting less than twice – the hosts are sure to come at us._
_Borges usually sets his team up in a 4-2-3-1 formation. Much of their success in 2025/26 has been built around the energy and creativity of attacking midfielder Trincao \[above\],and he is a player who hits plenty of shots from distance, while the varied finishing of speedy centre forward Suarez has also been impressive. The Colombian has been outstanding this term, and his tireless work rate will test our centre-back pairing._
_As for other eye-catchers, left-back Maxi Araujo loves to fly forward to create chances and is an exciting dribbler, while on the right wing, Mozambique international Geny Catamo is another good ball carrier who enjoys sliding through balls into the path of striker Suarez._
_The Portuguese side can look after possession very well, but in this competition, they have had plenty of success on the counter. When beating PSG 2-1 at home, Sporting had just a 25.4% share of the ball. In the Allianz Arena, against Bayern Munich, they also caused several scares, but with 38.4% of possession they were happy to look for breakaways._
I imagine a lot of the focus tonight will be on Viktor Gyokeres as he makes his first return to the club which sold him to Arsenal last summer. Mud was slung from both sides of the Sporting/player camp before the Swede finally got his move away from the club so I’m sure our striker will face a bit of a hostile reception, his 68 goals in 66 league appearances all but forgotten. I’m pretty sure Gyokeres will take it all in his stride, after all, he’s made of stern stuff.
Arsenal came up against Sporting in the league phase of this competition last season when we battered them 5-1 on their own turf but much has changed since then, certainly for opponents. A different manager for a start. A number of different players too.
Mikel Arteta spoke to the media last night when he was asked about the availability of Gabriel, Declan Rice and Leandro Trossard and the good news is, all three are fit. Sadly, Jurrien Timber, Bukayo Saka and Ebe Eze are not.
About tonight’s game, he said:
> This is the quarter-finals of the Champions League, it doesn’t get much better than that, and we worked so hard throughout the season to be in this position in the competition. We’re going to play an opponent here that we know about, their record and what they’ve done. So we are hungrier than ever, very excited and very, very motivated.
> You have to live the present, you have to deliver it every day. You cannot pick the games, you cannot pick the moments or the actions. It’s every action, every game, every moment. That’s the standard that we set and that’s part of identity and it’s part of this football club.
Is that a reference to our last two performances I wonder, because quite frankly, both were shocking. Walk out onto the pitch tonight with the kind of lazy attitude which we appeared to have against Southampton and we’ll get battered. However, with a few of the big guns returning, we should see a totally different approach.
Regardless of what you and I think about this competition, Arsenal need a big performance. A confidence building performance to kick start a strong end to the season.
Catch up in the comments.