Whatever the competition, when you reach a semi-final, it’s hard not to look ahead. To start dreaming of silverware. To think about making history.
For Arsenal, back in the last four of the Champions League for the first time since 2009 – in a competition the club has never won – that feeling is even stronger.
Mikel Arteta’s players and staff know they stand on the cusp of greatness. 180 minutes against Paris Saint-Germain, and then a winner-takes-all final in Munich against either Barcelona or Inter Milan. It’s enough to make your mouth water one moment and run dry the next.
And yet, for all the looking forward, it’s also the perfect moment to take stock – to reflect on the journey the club has been on since Arteta took charge in December 2019.
After the high of the 2020 FA Cup win, the lows were very low. An eighth-place finish in 2020/21, failure to qualify for Europe, and an unbalanced squad didn’t feel like growing pains – it felt like a project in danger of coming off the rails.
But then the tide started to turn. The disappointment of narrowly missing out on Champions League qualification in 2021/22 gave way to three title challenges that have emboldened the manager, the players, and the supporters alike. A trophy has so far proved a step too far, but Arsenal now look like they belong at the very top once again.
“I hoped and I dreamed and I put all my work, effort and the support of a lot of people around the club to achieve this,” said Arteta ahead of Tuesday’s clash with Paris Saint-Germain.
“But those [bad] days were necessary. To go on a journey, to have sense and to achieve what you want to do, you have to learn and you have to go through certain periods to enjoy certain others.
“And this is where we are right now. And now we have to make the next step.”
In 22 years, Arsene Wenger only took the Gunners to one Champions League final, which ultimately ended in soggy disappointment in the wet of Paris in May 2006.
Asked what it would mean to have his own shot at winning the biggest honour in the club’s history, Arteta said: “It’s an incredible opportunity.
“We are here to make people happy, to create history, and we are very close. And now we have to take the opportunity and make it happen.”
So how do his players grasp the opportunity in front of them?
“It’s just to visualise it, to be convinced, to go on that pitch thinking, yeah, we’re going to beat them, we’re going to be better than them tomorrow,” he said.
“And we’re going to do everything that we understand is the right things to earn the right to win the game. And go there with that conviction and feel the conviction around it. I think it’s key. If we are able to generate that energy, we’re going to be much closer to win in the game.
“That’s what I feel, again, in the team, that we are really looking forward to play the game tomorrow. And we’re going to give our very best to try to win the game.”
He added: “We have to have the feeling that we have to hold them back tomorrow to go on that pitch and express themselves.
“It’s a moment now to say, OK, this is who we are. This is who we are as a team. This is who I am as an individual. And I’m going to put my very best in there to make it happen. And play with that mindset and leave yourself go. They know everything now is about, OK, where are the limits and how far I’m able and how far I want to go. That’s it.”
Whatever happens tomorrow night, Arsenal have already shown they belong back at Europe’s top table.
But belonging is only the beginning. Now comes the real test: to seize the moment, to turn promise into glory, and to write a new chapter in the club’s history. The stage is set – it’s time to deliver.
