Arsenal’s quadruple hunt has been halved in a week and their UEFA Champions League hopes were sternly tested by a Sporting Lisbon side who had just beaten Bodo/Glimt to reach the quarter-finals of the competition.
Sporting, who trailed 3-0 in the first leg against Norwegian Bodo, were seven points adrift of Portugal’s top league leaders Porto, but it was more than a match for the English Premier League leaders in Lisbon on Tuesday and a late Kai Havertz goal separated the sides.
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A 1-0 win gave Mikel Arteta’s side the advantage ahead of next week’s second leg in London, but it was another game that left the Gunners with as many questions as answers.
Back-to-back defeats since the start of the season, including the League Cup final against Manchester City and the FA Cup quarter-finals against second-tier side Southampton, have put Arteta’s side at risk of falling into a late-season slump.
Having finished third in the Premier League over the last three seasons, they look likely to drop the ‘almost man’ tag this year.
They are nine points clear at the top of the English league with seven games remaining, but second-placed Pep Guardiola’s City have a game in hand.
But even Havertz’s stoppage-time winner in Lisbon could not overlook another problematic performance from the Gunners and their cracks against a side that failed to get past the quarter-finals of the competition.
Sporting had 10 shots on target compared to Arsenal’s seven and had five on target compared to the Gunners’ four.
Arteta said going into the Lisbon game that he expected questions about his side despite them topping the Premier League and having won all but one of their Champions League games this season.
“This has been happening for the last nine months and it will continue, that will never change when you play at this level for this club,” he said ahead of the game at Estadio Jose Alvalade.
“There will always be a question mark, that’s all. You have to live in the moment and deliver on it every day.”
As Arsenal faltered again, Arteta’s concentration was fully focused.
But question marks aren’t just on his side.
The Spaniard has struggled to hide his emotions, especially in defeat, and Al Jazeera understands this is a concern for some members of Arsenal’s hierarchy who believe the former midfielder’s intensity could hinder his team at crucial moments.
The poor performance, which saw them suffer back-to-back defeats for the first time this campaign, has left the club’s long-time fans in a bout of soul searching.
The north Londoners have not won a trophy since the 2020 FA Cup and their “almost man” tag has raised doubts about their ability to finally win the title.
But Arteta is confident he can handle the growing pressure of winning the Champions League for the first time as he aims to finally win the Premier League after a 22-year wait.
“There are always two or three moments in the season, this is the first moment where we have a certain level of difficulty,” Arteta said in the build-up to the Lisbon game.
“I love my players. That’s what they did for nine months. I’m not going to criticize them because we lost, the way they put their bodies through everything.”
“I will defend them more than ever. Someone has to take responsibility, that is me and we have the most beautiful period of the season ahead of us,” Arteta added.
Arsenal’s suffering could lead to Champions League victory
Arsenal beat Sporting 5-1 in Lisbon in the Champions League league stage, a far cry from the Gunners’ continued tense form on Tuesday.
Christian Nogaard’s soundbite of optimism in the face of adversity heading into the Sporting game may have been the relief heard in the halls of power at the Emirates Stadium by those doubting Arteta’s mettle.
“The message is to have positive body language and talk to your team-mates and coaching staff. Now is not the time to keep your head down for too long,” the Arsenal midfielder said on Monday.
“It’s okay to be disappointed and analyze what went wrong, but we also have to look forward because there are so many big games coming up for this club.”
Arteta said his side were looking to turn the pain of their last two results into gain, encouraging players to embrace defeat and combating external noise about another late-season swoon.
“It’s clear what you have to do,” he said Monday. “Rather than panic, when it happens, understand why it happened and gain clarity. And if you analyze it and accept it, you will get better. That’s it, that’s what we have to do.
“Get perspective on how difficult it is. Feel that pain, feel that emotion, and use it to do better and improve. There are some things we’ve discussed internally, and I’m very confident we’ll see it happen.”
The players were filmed taking part in team-building exercises at training on Monday, as well as their usual football drills to shake off mistakes before the game.
“We have full faith,” Arsenal goalkeeper David Raya told Prime after the game. His abilities were praised for his key performance on the night.
“We absolutely believe (that we can win the Champions League). If you don’t believe it, you’ll never win it no matter what you go through.”
“We have to get back to who we are, be ourselves, lose two tournaments straight away and learn from that stomachache.
“That’s the main message we’re sending out there.”
Will Arsenal really stand up?
The win also brought cheers to his manager, but Arteta could not hide from an area of concern that threatened to derail a season that has shown more promise than any in the club’s history.
“I’m very happy to have beaten the away team in the Champions League quarter-finals,” the Arsenal manager told Prime.
“When we got into the final third we had to be clearer and more efficient.
“We came up short on the final pass, but we ended up winning through some clinical moments.
“At this stage of the season, everyone has to make an impact, we need the big guys to come out and beat us.
“We had to put ourselves out there today, and it speaks volumes about identity, and we saw that tonight.”
Whether the failures of the last few seasons and the feared limitations of Arteta’s identity being set aside will be behind us will only be fully revealed when the north Londoners finally lift one of their major favorites once again.
