Martin Odegaard implores Arsenal to enjoy season climax
Arsenal Football Newsletter
Is this it? Another huge few days in Arsenal's season is here, but is it the huge few days? The days, the two matches, that will finally bring the answers?
We have been here before. Many times this season, in fact. It feels as though every week since Christmas has been billed as the one that will set in stone the direction in which Arsenal's campaign is going.
It should be no surprise, then, that the Arsenal squad look utterly exhausted. No team across Europe's major leagues have played more games and every match, almost all of which have been a grind, has felt season-defining.
Momentum was not with the Gunners for much of April but May is now here and opportunity looms.
The fact a Champions League semi-final can - and for now must - be ignored emphasises just how great the scale of Arsenal's achievements could be this season.
Atletico Madrid have nothing really riding on their trip to Valencia this afternoon. Julian Alvarez, Alexander Sorloth or Giuliano Simeone and Marcos Llorente are among those to have been left out of the squad.
Arsenal edged past Atletico Madrid in the Champions League semi-final first-leg
The focus for Atletico is Arsenal, but the Gunners cannot reciprocate that. It has to all be about Fulham.
“The players’ reaction immediately after [the first leg against Atletico] is 'now it's Fulham, now it's Fulham, now it's Fulham',” Arteta said on Friday.
“Immediately in the dressing room. They know that and they will have time to prepare for Atletico Madrid.”
Beat Fulham and Mikel Arteta's side will go six points clear of Manchester City in the title race for at least 48 hours.
The previous months have been about jostling for position but, as Arteta put it yesterday, history is now within touching distance.
“We need to push it,” Arteta said. “Everybody has to lead himself and take ownership of the moment. The impact that you can have in the moment now is going to define the history of the club. That's a very powerful thing to have.”
Mikel Arteta hopes his players’ heads are in the right place ahead of facing Fulham
If Arsenal were to win the Premier League and the Champions League, it would be the greatest season in the club's history.
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Fall short in both, though, and there will be debates raised over Arteta's future at the club heading into the final year of his contract. Those are the stakes of the next few weeks.
There should be a surge of energy for Arsenal in knowing that the coming days will take them to the brow of the hill.
After these Fulham and Atletico matches, Arsenal will not play again in midweek for the rest of the season.
There will be clear weeks ahead of games against Burnley, Crystal Palace, and, if it comes to it, the Champions League final.
Arteta was keen to emphasise that point at his pre-match press conference ahead of Fulham's visit, calling for a last big push from his players.
“After that, we're going to have more separation in games so we know that it is this very particular period and short turnaround,” Arteta said.
“Just focus on Fulham and we'll take care of the rest afterwards.”
Arsenal have not dealt well with these league matches in between European two-legged fixtures.
They were beaten by Bournemouth in the match sandwiched by the Sporting quarter-final last month. Late heroics were required to get past Everton in the middle of the Bayer Leverkusen tie.
Nor is that a new problem. On the run to the semi-finals of the Champions League last season, Arsenal drew to Brentford and Manchester United and again lost to Bournemouth in those games scheduled between knockout ties.
Those games last season come with something of a caveat in that it became clear Liverpool would run away with the title and Europe became Arsenal's priority.
There is no such luxury this season. Arsenal are all in with both hands and cannot afford any slip-ups.
At this time of the year, momentum can make or break a season. Victory over Fulham and Arsenal can go into the Atletico tie full of confidence, knowing that the most intense physical toll is behind them.
This is the kind of match Arsenal have stumbled in over the last couple of seasons, when minds have wandered elsewhere and the legs are particularly heavy.
These Arsenal players desperately need the respite of one game a week. They must ensure they get there with everything still to play for, rather than simply providing time to stew on what could have been.