There are a select few with perfect records against the Spanish superpowers. Dundee United have played four games against Barcelona, won all four and wisely not faced them since 1987 to see if they could extend that sequence. Arsenal have met Real Madrid but never conceded to them: two games, two clean sheets, blunting a side with a combination of Galacticos and Gravesen.
That record should be tested this week and next. In 2006, Arsenal shut out Ronaldo, Robinho, Raul and Roberto Carlos, Zinedine Zidane and David Beckham – plus, a little incongruously, Thomas Gravesen – twice en route to their first Champions League final.
A repeat would be timely and come with a common denominator. Arsene Wenger’s feat of defiance was rendered all the more impressive by the loss of Sol Campbell and Ashley Cole. Real’s irresistible objects encountered an irresistible force in Emmanuel Eboue, Kolo Toure, Philippe Senderos and Mathieu Flamini, the French midfielder a makeshift left-back.
Fast forward to the current day and the loss of Gabriel Magalhaes offers a parallel. One way or another, Mikel Arteta will have to rejig his defence. Which has been an issue in the past. Go back three years, when Arsenal’s ambition was to qualify for the Champions League rather than win it, and an end-of-season stumble into fifth came with absentees at the back. Rob Holding’s disastrous North London derby acquired an infamy but other understudies, in Nuno Tavares and Cedric Soares, were required in patched-up back fours. Rewind two years and, with ...
