When Arsenal face Sporting in their Champions League quarter-final first leg on Wednesday, there will be much more riding on the game than just a knockout match in Lisbon.
For many, this is where the Gunners need to show back-to-back defeats, against Manchester City in the Carabao Cup final and the damaging loss to Southampton in the FA Cup quarter-final, will not leak into their European and Premier League campaigns.
Arsenal have been tagged as the ‘nearly men’ under Mikel Arteta with three successive second-placed finishes in the Premier League in the last three seasons.
But the Gunners have played a ruthless style of football this season, which has seen them establish a nine-point lead in the Premier League, reach the final of one cup competition and, depending what happens in two legs against Sporting, at least the quarter-final stage of the two other cup campaigns they began.
Their style of play has been questioned at times but now it is the team’s mentality that is coming under the spotlight.
The Gunners have been so impressive this season that their defeats by City and Saints are the first time they have lost successive matches this campaign, while the loss on the south coast was just the fifth of the season.
But, with the Champions League and Premier League the top prizes for the Gunners, this is where Arteta needs to show the pain of coming so close in precious campaigns is not going to overwhelm his side as they look to win their first major trophy since 2020.
“Have some perspective about how difficult it is what we have done until now,” said Arteta, when asked how he and the team prevent a longer run of defeats.
“Feel the pain, feel the emotion and use it to be better and improve.”
The Spaniard said his team are “very clear” why they lost to Southampton and believes they did not deserve to beaten.
“This is football and we got punished for things that are related to our identity,” he said. “These are things we need to defend in the strongest possible way.”
The Gunners boss said Arsenal are “hungrier than ever” and that the defeats do not change the importance of the last-eight match against Sporting.
“If we had won the game, this is the quarter-finals of the Champions League, it doesn’t get much better,” he added.
“We worked so hard throughout the season to be at this stage in the competition. We are going to play an opponent that we know about their records and what they have done.”
Arsenal will be ‘wounded beast’ – Sporting boss Borges
The reason there is so much worry the nine-point gap is not enough to stop City chasing Arsenal down in the Premier League is that Pep Guardiola’s side seem to have found form and their rivals are having to juggle injuries to key players.
City produced two of their best performances of the season when they defeated Arsenal 2-0 at Wembley and thumped Liverpool 4-0 in the FA Cup at the weekend.
During the international break, 11 Arsenal players withdrew from their national teams with injury issues and Arsenal are going to be without Bukayo Saka and Jurrien Timber for the match on Tuesday night.
Centre-back Gabriel Magalhaes came off with a knee issue against Southampton on Saturday, while captain Martin Odegaard is building up his fitness after his own injury issues and was substituted after an hour.
Sporting head coach Rui Borges does not think the fact Arsenal have lost their last two matches will make much of a difference on Tuesday.
“They will be like a wounded beast,” he said. “They will be more focused, more willing to show their collective and individual capacity.
“It will make things more difficult for us that they have not had the best two last matches. But Arsenal will be facing a very motivated team in us.
“We believe we can do something extraordinary, something that has never been done by Sporting.”
The Portuguese side have never reached the semi-finals of the Champions League and are looking to heap pressure on the Gunners.
Arsenal goalkeeper David Raya echoed the sentiment of the Sporting coach, saying his side are going to use the disappointment of recent results to turn things around.
The Spaniard said: “We just have to use that fuel and pain we had after the game to pick it up for the rest of the season. It starts against Sporting. That is the most important game.”
Explore the world of impactful news with CitiNewsroom on WhatsApp!
Click on the link to join the Citi Newsroom channel for curated, meaningful stories tailored just for YOU:
https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaCYzPRAYlUPudDDe53x
No spam, just the stories that truly matter! #StayInformed #CitiNewsroom #CNRDigital
