by When Mikel Areta came to his tasks before the game before the Champions League semi -finals, he beamed absolutely. You really have the feeling of a football figure who enjoyed the occasion and he certainly stated the right tone.
That has been the case for two weeks now. David Raya and Mikel Merino particularly searched for an ultra-focused Mikel arteta. The two played under Paris Saint-Germain Manager Luis Enrique for Spain, and Arteta and his employees were of course interested in additional insights.
None of this is of course really new. You are aware of what PSG can do. One of the reasons why Arsenal is at this stage is that your preparation is so thorough.
However, what is new for this group is exactly this phase. This is the first time that the Areta team has reached a semi -finals of the Champions League, and only the third time that Arsenal has all its history.
It is already good that these are probably the two largest clubs that the Champions League have not yet won, Atletico Madrid. One of them will have the best possible opportunity to do this right. Both Arsenal and PSG performed in a final and lost in 2006 and 2020.
The discussion about such a story can be a little twice for club employees. Managers want the players to be inspired by it, but they want them to not weigh anyone.
“Live that now, in the present we are where we are,” said Areta. His team enjoys the rare atmosphere that goes hand in hand with such occasions.
Areta actually beamed all week. “You feel the energy,” said the BASKE. “It’s something unique, probably one of the biggest games in this stadium.” Gabriel Martinelli called it “the game of his life”.
There is little as in football, this crackling energy that charges the structure. The modern game may have as many problems as in the fact that Arsenal takes over a Qatarisches Sport -Schwashing project and how the Champions League itself has become such an engine of inequality in football.
This famous topic begins when it comes to this stage. Areta has often told his players that this is the level that they have to get used to.
When he spoke to Pep Guardiola before the game of Real Madrid, the Catalan couldn’t help but missed this feeling when his teams were not there. This is really what a club like Arsenal should have a lot more experience. It is actually a historical peculiarity that one of the big institutions of English football in the European Cup has no more respected legacy.
For this reason, the main message of Areteta in this campaign was to “write their own history”. There are actually rational reasons why this is the case. More than half of Arsenals came 13 titles before the European Cup was invented. Her double winners from 1971 were then unhappy enough to possibly meet the largest club team in Johan Cruyffs Ajax in the quarterfinals. George Graham’s two leagues then came to Heysel at the end of the English club ban, so that they were not allowed to enter 1989-90 and did not have this decisive European experience in 1991-92.
Arsene Wenger’s arsenal developed famous more experience in the Champions League than almost every club other than he consistently achieved on the last 16. The problem was that it was rarely much further. The 2003/04 season remains the great opportunity when Arsenal was probably the best side in Europe. Wenger always complained how it was one thing that was missing from his reign: European fame.
When the French Great entered his last years in the club, Areteta himself was there in midfield and could see how it was for them shortly before the required level.
It has now informed part of his approach. The earlier recording could be “irrelevant”, as Arteta said. The lessons from it are not.
“We are very close and now we have to take the opportunity to achieve this,” said Arteta. Such comments currently touch a different feeling at the moment arsenal that adds the feeling of anticipation. It is a growing feeling of fate that they will do this. The way the campaign developed through the destruction of Real Madrid has only deepened.
Although the injuries in the season would normally promote more doubts, not least for this semi -finals, it had the opposite effect. It has made the players believe that they can overcome everything, with Arteta constantly emphasizing this message. He pointed out how “we have overcome problems and challenges”.
Areta showed some of them as he spoke about how the players “have to visualize themselves in order to be convinced”.
A feeling and the actual football are two very different things. Areta’s close friend Mauricio Pochettino had a similar feeling for fate before Tottenham Hotspur’s final defeat against Liverpool 2019. Arsenal would of course emphasize that they are very not Tottenham.
While the team may have encouraged earlier victories, injuries to one of their main centers and the main striker should finally have an impact. Areteta obviously would have preferred to have Gabriel there because this PSG attack is hurricane on her. At the other end, Kai Havertz’s main important thing is how much he gets artistas press. The lack of Thomas Party Energy is more likely to be more likely to play in the face of the pace in which PSG can play.
Here these additional insights from players who know Luis Enrique are all the more important. The level is so high for such games that they are decided by these details. You only have to consider PSG’s own passage here. As brilliant as they were in the quarter -finals against Aston Villa, they went through with fine margins.
This draw showed a vulnerability in the team of Luis Enrique, which has probably not been seen in the league since Arsenals 2-0. The 3-1 defeat on Friday against Nice will not have helped. It is a sudden drop at the wrong time.
Those in Arsenal can point out that this is only a natural problem if the entire focus is on the Champions League, as can be seen in their own latest Premier League results.
While Areta’s preference would be to play high intensity style in this high -pressure, which Luis Enrique prefers, one of the strengths of arsenal is its adaptability. You can dig out and defend yourself in a way that can be decisive in Cup football like this. PSG may have already been beaten by Arsenal this season, but this team has not intended to do such a test. Teams no longer defend it that way. On the other hand, Arsenal faces an attack – and especially Kvicha Kvaratshkelia and Ousmane Dembele – who have recently been relentless.
All of this forms a whole setup for a semi -finals.
“It’s a nice moment,” said Areta. “Live it and enjoy it.”
