Arsenal do no more than is required to eke past Sporting and one question remains
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Arsenal do what is required, and maybe get what they really needed.
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They don’t just have a 1-0 win away against Sporting in this Champions League quarter-final first leg, that puts them on the brink of a second successive semi-final for the first time in the club’s history.
They just have a win again, a good feeling. You could see it in the joy of the players after Kai Havertz’s finely taken goal. You could see it in the relief after more superb David Raya saves.
All of the noise from the recent domestic cup defeats is drowned out by celebration, that good feeling crucially restored just before the match that really matters to them: Saturday in the Premier League at home to Bournemouth.
Kai Havertz wheels away in celebration after scoring a late winner in Lisbon (Arsenal FC via Getty)”I think we had a point to prove,” Mikel Arteta said.
There is something of a lesson in that, too, beyond what was a classically educated European away performance and yet another productive use of the bench. The substitutes again made the difference, to show another value of squad depth at a time when so much talk is of physical fatigue. This was the 24th goal and 14th assist brought by Arteta’s bench this season, more than anyone.
“Again, the story of the season,” Arteta added. “The finishers come in when the most important part of the game is about to happen and they made the difference for us to win it.”
But there was also more.
The goal, and victory, came from one of their attackers finally stepping up. After a match in which they had again seemed to be playing within themselves, and often as if they were more intent on control than conqeuring, substitute Gabriel Martinelli changed the pace and the tone.
He received the ball in the Sporting half and turned, before just going for it. There was the intent of the run and then the incision of a fine pass, playing in Havertz beautifully. The goal was all the better because of the way the German forward just fluidly continued to move, to slide it past Rui Silva.
Arsenal’s Kai Havertz celebrates after scoring the late winner (PA)It also looked all the better because of how different it had been to most of the Arsenal display.
They seemed content to get the 0-0. It could be said that was an entirely fair approach after the travails of recent games, that they just needed to stabilise, but it’s hard not to wonder whether there is more to that, too.
With everything now so dependent on the end result, the question is whether Arteta is now playing results-based football, without the same processes that actually produce such results.
That can manifest in different ways, and often subtle ways, such as taking the conservative option to maintain control rather than the more assertive one to seize the game. Hence the importance of Martinelli’s assertiveness.
Hence so much of the midfield play. How many times did Martin Zubimendi and Martin Odegaard go for the safe option?
Such approaches foster the perception of a team playing within themselves and getting through it, without getting people up off their feet.
Again, they won’t care about that if it all ends with the team celebrating the title or the Champions League.
Figures at Arsenal would also point to the very relevant fact that, up to now, and as will be the case until the FA Cup semi-final, they have been the only English team to play in every possible fixture this season.
That matters.
You can see it, above all, in a player like Zubimendi. A player rightly lauded for his precise passing has been responsible for an unusual amount of bad back passes, that bring danger. There were two here, with Raya of course out to clear both. What can that be but fatigue. The midfielder is usually so crisp.
Martin Zubimendi made two rare blunders against Sporting (AP)There is a fair question over whether this propensity has been influenced by a corresponding lack of mobility further up the field. On a number of occasions throughout the game, but especially in the first half, Zubimendi was on the ball in the centre and looking to play it forward only to find the front line very static. Again, Martinelli changed that. That’s the importance of those substitutes.
Arsenal immediately looked more mobile. Viktor Gyokeres again battled earnestly, but he didn’t really hurt his former team, whose fanbase naturally ended up applauding him. The Swede could also have been more mobile for the offside that disallowed Zubimendi’s strike.
This wasn’t all about Arsenal, of course.
Sporting were defensively well marshalled. They also forced three good saves from Raya.
Goalkeeper David Raya starred for Arsenal (PA)And that’s why there is another perspective on this.
This was actually a throwback in precisely the right way – a classic European away performance. Arsenal did a tactical number on the opposition, who had this run of 17 home wins, before taking their chance.
“It's very tricky, very difficult to play,” Arteta added. “That's the reason why they won 17 times in a row here. They haven’t lost for a long, long time. We really had to earn it.”
Arsenal still couldn’t play anything close to their maximum because of the various issues around this season, so they displayed a vintage Champions League minimalism. They also used that depth, the greater numbers. It helps when one of them is Havertz, who has his own rich history in this competition: he’s been a matchwinner in the final. He showed why here. Arsenal showed an old quality.
The modern dynamics of the sport may have ensured such performances aren’t as visible any more, but recent reversions could mean they become newly important again.
This was a vintage performance of Champions League minimalism (AFP via Getty)It could be decisive in other ways.
After a week when all the talk has been about how results in other competitions are intertwined with the title challenge, and may well influence it, what will this do?
Arteta had a few conspicuous comments on that, too. He admitted they maybe needed the nature of that win.
“Yes, because the demands from August is win and win and win and win, and if you don't win, it's a disaster, and it's not enough, and if you don't win four trophies, what are we doing? So that's fine, but they need some perspective, especially from my side, a big reminder of what we are as a team and the things that have brought us where we are. And take it, live the present, do your best and let's see what happens.
What happens now is Arsenal feel good again at the best time possible.
That tends to be the case with last-minute winners. There’s very little like them, and there aren’t too many that tend to be as exquisitely executed as this.
As with everything else with Arsenal right now, it's all about the end result. Or, as Arteta might put it, how you finish - and who finishes.