There may only have been the merest trace of a title race for Arsenal to participate in before today, but even before a ball was struck Mikel Arteta’s team selection suggested his mind lay elsewhere.
Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard, Jurrien Timber and Gabriel Martinelli all finished the game but none of them started as Arteta’s thoughts turned to Real Madrid on Tuesday. The last great hope of the season for Arsenal is at least a classic in prospect, against one of the great sides. That so many were either rested or, in the case of Saka, not risked with a start, was all the acknowledgement required that Arteta considers Liverpool too far ahead to catch.
Indeed, Arne Slot’s team now require just 11 points from their last eight games. Should they win their next three, starting with Fulham on Sunday, they could seal the deal in three weeks’ time in the fourth game in the sequence at home to Tottenham Hotspur. It is that close now for the 20th league championship in their history. Meanwhile the elite end of the Champions League awaits Arsenal and Arteta may feel that in Saka he has his best player ready just in time to unleash on this great Real side at the Emirates.
There will be no Gabriel Magalhaes against Real, and on this occasion it was Jakub Kiwior who played alongside William Saliba in the centre of defence. Arteta said that Ben White, who started this game, was also a possibility for that role on Tuesday. Saka and Martinelli came on at half-time. Timber and Odegaard followed in similar order. For all the slow fade-out of his team in the title race and two more dropped points, there was at least some promise for Arteta that his team are viable – or at least what is left of the available players. Saka, he said, now has two substitute performances and almost 80 minutes in total. “He [Saka] will be in a much better place [for it],” Arteta said.
The Arsenal manager is no longer even asked about a potential title challenge. The question of whether they can beat Real is now all that really matters at the end of the 2024-25 season. “One of the most beautiful games that you can play in football,” Arteta said in anticipation of Tuesday, “in the highest European competition against the team that has dominated that competition in the last 20 to 25 years. We are really looking forward to it.”
There was a major complaint from Arteta about the viability of the penalty that Darren England awarded against Arsenal at the beginning of the first half when Myles Lewis-Skelly wrapped an arm around Jack Harrison in the edge of the box. The Arsenal left-back eventually fell on the Everton man and while the penalty award looked marginal, the VAR Stuart Attwell did not order a review.
The challenge that led to Everton's penalty.
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“I’ve seen it 15 times,” Arteta said of the foul that led to the ...
