It was the night when Arsenal made their first big statement of the season in the Champions League, when they advertised their desire to go all the way in Europe’s most glamorous competition; to create club history. They had welcomed Atlético Madrid in the third round of league phase matches and it turned into a showcase for all of the best bits about Mikel Arteta’s team.
The bolted-door defence. The furious counterpress. The physicality. The speed and ruthlessness. The set-piece productivity. And, linked to everything but trumping the lot, the total self-belief. Arsenal were unable to find a way through in the first half or the early part of the second – it was tight – but they did not panic because they knew the goal would come. It was inevitable. They were inevitable.
When Gabriel Magalhães scored it in the 57th minute, it was the prompt for a devastating salvo, Arsenal raining in three more by the 70th minute. The game finished 4-0, Atlético departing battered and bruised. It was late October and the performance and result were very much of a piece with the Arsenal of the first half of the season.
Team news
Mikel Arteta makes two changes, both in attack, from the nervy Premier League victory over Newcastle on Saturday. Gabriel Martinelli and Viktor Gyokeres, who scored three of the four goals when Arsenal trounced Atletico earlier this season, replace Eberechi Eze and the injured Kai Havertz. It’s the MGM attack – Madueke, Gyokeres, Martinelli – so we’re contractually obliged to link to a lion roaring.
Bukayo Saka isn’t yet to fit to play a full 90 minutes; Riccardo Calafiori joins him on a strong Arsenal bench.
Atletico make four changes from their 3-2 win over Athletic Bilbao at the weekend. Julian Alvarez, David Hancko, Johnny Cardoso and Ademola Lookman come in for Clement Lenglet, Pablo Barrios, Alex Baena and Alexander Sorloth.
This is the fourth meeting between Atletico and Arsenal. The first two came in the Europa League semi-final of 2017-18, when goals from Antoine Griezmann and Diego Costa put Atleti through 2-1 on aggregate. The other was in the league phase of this season’s competition, when Arsenal ran riot in the second half.
Preamble
History is made! Or rather, it will be at 8pm BST tonight, when Mikel Arteta’s oft-maligned Arsenal play back-to-back Champions League semi-finals for the first time in the club’s history. It’ll count for little if they don’t win either the Premier League or Champions League this season, but it’s an undeniable marker of their progression from the 15th-best team in England to one Europe’s finest.
For the second year in a row, Arsenal’s semi-final involves arguably the two best teams never to win the European Cup or Champions League. Paris Saint-Germain’s glorious triumph last season left a vacancy for Atletico, though they would argue they were already in the top two. After all, no side has played in more Champions League finals without winning the thing. On all three occasions, in 1974, 2014 and 2016, Atleti came agonisingly close.
Either they or Arsenal, who lost their only final to Barcelona 20 years ago, will get another crack in Budapest on 30 May. It should be a fascinating struggle between two teams best known for their defensive excellence. We’ll have none of that nine-goal nonsense tonight.
