Just before the cooling break midway through the first half of the Champions League final, Bukayo Saka scuttled back to help out Arsenal right-back Cristhian Mosquera.
Paris Saint-Germain's star winger Kvicha Kvaratskhelia was on the charge, but there was no chance of the livewire Georgia international being left one-on-one. Between them, Saka and Mosquera defused the situation. They congratulated one another as television commentators praised Saka's commitment to the cause.
The England winger is Arsenal's highest earner, their "Starboy". A player of enviable gifts and a hero to their fanbase. When Saka was substituted in the 83rd minute, he'd had no shots on target, created no chances for teammates, hadn't made a successful take-on, completed four passes and collected a booking. In many respects, he'd done his job to the letter.
"They scored from a lucky action. After, it was a pleasure for them," PSG boss Luis Enrique told TNT Sport following Saturday's 1-1 draw at the Puskas Arena, after which his reigning European champions won on penalties.
Luis Enrique knew his swashbuckling and lavishly assembled PSG had side shot themselves in the foot when Kai Havertz stormed clear and thrashed into the top corner with six minutes gone. Surrendering more than 75% of possession against elite opponents should not be a pleasure for any team. But maybe it is for Arteta's Arsenal.
KAI HAVERTZ. WHAT A FINISH. ARSENAL ARE UP WITHIN 6 MINUTES. 🔴⚪ pic.twitter.com/HisXR03xjV
— CBS Sports Golazo ⚽️ (@CBSSportsGolazo) May 30, 2026
MORE: PSG vs. Arsenal as it happened
These are the terms they have set; this is what they do. And who's to argue with the method? A first Premier League title in 22 years, two major finals this season. Arteta is the man who has ended Arsenal's banter era. They will emerge from their heartbreak in Budapest to a sundrenched parade in north London on Sunday. The club's coffers are flush with record revenues and Arteta can embellish his well-drilled squad from a position of strength.
There have been some fanciful suggestions over what this might look like. Those revolve around the notion that, with the nerve-shredding wait for a Premier League trophy over, Arteta will let the handbrake off, sign a couple of jazzy attackers and let the champagne football flow.
Really? You think a coach as intense as Arteta who was a couple of stray penalty kicks away from a final "masterclass" will abandon the formula that has brought him, painstakingly to the summit? This is what Arsenal are and what they will remain under their former club captain.
When Saka and Martin Odegaard shimmered with creative license a couple of seasons ago, they often lovely to watch. They did not win any trophies. They won plaudits from neutrals, but Arsenal fans were heartbroken. Now Arsenal fans are getting ready for a title parade and some neutrals think their football verges on an affront to the eyes. Arteta knows the constituency he serves.
How much money has Arteta spent at Arsenal?
Some will point to the vast outlay Manchester City are able to put down on wages and the fact that another state-backed club, PSG, have denied Arsenal in their past two Champions League campaigns. But Arteta has spent in excess of £1billion in the transfer market since talking charge of Arsenal in 2019. A quarter of a billion pounds of that were put down last summer. All of this is a choice. Arteta has earned vast power at Arsenal and this is the team and squad he wanted. Jurgen Klopp had a similar financial equation to grapple with when he went up against City at Liverpool and turned out one of the most thrilling teams in Premier League history. On the other hand, he and Arteta now have the same number to Engliish titles.
The point is that he should now embrace this, and people should stop talking about releasing handbrakes and shackles. Victory in Budapest would have undoubtedly placed Arteta as the Mourinho of his era. It might sit uncomfortably with Arsenal fans, who so loathed the Chelsea mastermind at the same time as Arsene Wenger railed against physical and set-piece dominated teams like Stoke City. Now, Arteta plays those percentages, leads title winners who score 40% of their goals from set plays and has fans cheering the imminent spectacle of a long free-kick on halfway by goalkeeper David Raya because bulldozing centre-back Gabriel has trotted forward.
Gabriel Magalhães 05302026
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The Mourinho comparison is particularly pertinent because of a common thread in his and Arteta's origin stories. Mourinho learned the ins and outs of Barcelona's philosophy and style, inspired by Johan Cruyff, when he was on the Camp Nou staff in the 1990s. In time, he developed a rigorously honed counterpoint to positional play and used it against the old empire. Arteta got his coaching break under Cruyff's great disciple, Pep Guardiola, and Manchester City, meaning he knows the contemporary playbook like few others. He might have lost his final two encounters with Guardiola, but Arteta is also the only manager to twice finish above the Catalan in domestic league campaigns.
This is Arsenal. Fine margins forever, with Mikel Arteta; set pieces their own. Next season, the Gunners will be the only member of the Premier League "big six" not to have changed their manager this year. Arteta's uncompromising team can capitalise on that uncertainty and do something Wenger's celebrated sides never did by retaining a title. The days of Guardiola, Klopp and 90-plus points totals are receding from view. Similarly, if Enzo Maresca, Xabi Alonso, Andoni Iraola or Michael Carrick get up a head of steam, their sides could vault past Arteta's zero-sum ensemble.
Arteta's football won a league and left his team vulnerable in the Carabao and European Cup finals against top-level opponents. It's not perfect, but every Arsenal fan would have signed for it at the start of the season. Don't hold your breath expecting their manager to change.