For 20 years, Arsenal have waited for this moment. They now stand 90 minutes away from the biggest game in club football. Arsenal face Atletico Madrid in the Champions League semi-final second leg at the Emirates.
Home atmosphere at the Emirates
This season, much has been made of the Emirates atmosphere. Recent scrutiny focused on Arsenal fans getting too nervous, which translated to the pitch.
The football has been margin-based since early 2026. The 1-0 win over Newcastle revealed those nerves among the fans.
This week, everything seemed to change — Arsenal came out of the blocks flying against Fulham, playing with a positive intent and a willingness to attack. It saw them lead 3-0 at half-time, but they were also given a standing ovation by the Arsenal fans as they headed in for the break.
The Emirates was already bound to be rocking with how big the occasion was; however, Manchester City’s 3-3 draw with Everton has put the Gunners back in control of their own destiny for the Premier League title, and the atmosphere at home is going to be up another level.
European home semi-final record
Since Kolo Toure’s goal in the first leg of Arsenal’s tie against Villarreal in the Champions League semi-final back in 2006, the Gunners have won just a single European semi-final tie at home, beating Valencia 3-1 in the first leg of their Europa League semi-final in 2019.
They are also yet to win one under Mikel Arteta, drawing 0-0 to the Yellow Submarine in the second leg of their 2021 Europa League semi-final, and last year in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final, losing 1-0 to PSG.
The Gunners will also be looking for revenge on Atletico, having somehow come away with a 1-1 draw in the 2018 Europa League semi-final.
The Gunners will also be looking for revenge on Atletico, specifically, having somehow come away with a 1-1 draw in the first leg of the 2018 Europa League semi-final, despite the visitors having 10 men and Diego Simeone sent off early on. Atleti would win the second leg 1-0 to progress through to the final, where they would beat Marseille to lift the trophy.
Arsenal’s European record at the Emirates in semi-finals:
2008/09 Champions League — Arsenal 1-3 Manchester United (1-4 on aggregate)
2017/18 Europa League — Arsenal 1-1 Atletico Madrid
2018/19 Europa League — Arsenal 3-1 Valencia
2020/21 Europa League — Arsenal 0-0 Villarreal
2024/25 Champions League — Arsenal 0-1 PSG
Line-up dilemmas for Arteta
The majority of the team that started the 3-0 win against Fulham should start against Atletico. The big question marks come in the full-back positions and in midfield.
At left-back, there is a debate as to whether it should be Riccardo Calafiori or Piero Hincapie that gets the nod. Calafiori, without doubt, makes Arsenal a much better team in terms of build-up and attacking play, but the win over the weekend was the first time he had played in nearly a month, missing five games in the process.
Hincapie has filled in brilliantly since then, particularly with a player-of-the-match performance against Newcastle.
Right back is also another position of question. Jurrien Timber is still unavailable for the Gunners, meaning that it will either be Ben White or Cristian Mosquera.
White has played in six of the last seven matches at right-back; the only one he did not, Mosquera filled in for the second leg of the quarter-final against Sporting.
In midfield, Declan Rice will take one of the spots, and usually it seems a certainty that Martin Zubimendi would take the other. Myles Lewis-Skelly impressed so much during the Fulham game with his role in midfield that now Arteta surely has to consider whether to play the teenager in there once again, given how the rest of the Arsenal squad has performed across this Champions League run.