The wait, finally, is over. Twenty years after Sol Campbell’s header against Barcelona briefly woke a sleeping giant in Paris, Arsenal are returning to a Champions League final. They got there at the Emirates on Tuesday night, 1-0 on the evening and 2-1 on aggregate over Atlético Madrid, and they got there the way modern Arsenal have learned to win. Through structure. Through patience. Through the alertness of one player to a half-cleared ball.
Bukayo Saka’s 45th-minute tap-in was the goal. The journey was longer than that. What follows is a look at how Arsenal got there, what Atlético failed to do, and where this run leaves Mikel Arteta with Budapest on May 30 still to come.
Saka returns at the right moment for Arteta
Saka is now the first Arsenal player to score in two consecutive Champions League semifinals. Before his goal against Fulham last Saturday, he had scored just once in 26 appearances while battling form and fitness around an Achilles issue. He has scored in back-to-back matches since.
His goal at the Emirates was not a thing of beauty. Viktor Gyökeres got to the byline and pulled it back, Leandro Trossard worked himself onto his right foot, Jan Oblak parried, and Saka was first to react. Tap-ins do not require artistry. They require positioning and instinct, both of which Saka has in abundance.
What matters more is what came an hour in. Mikel Arteta withdrew him before the game’s most stressful phase, protecting an Achilles that the medical team are clearly still managing carefully. Only one player has ever scored in a Champions League final for Arsenal. Sol Campbell, in 2006. Saka, on this evidence, is the most credible candidate to be the second.
Gyökeres breaks through Atlético’s deep block
For 43 minutes, Diego Simeone’s plan was holding. Atlético defended in a compact shape, denying Arsenal anything central, conceding possession in non-threatening areas and breaking quickly through Julián Álvarez and Giuliano Simeone. Giuliano forced David Raya into an early save after a Antoine Griezmann pullback. Arsenal, by contrast, did not register a shot on target in the opening 43 minutes.
The break came from the one space Atlético struggled to close. The byline. Gyökeres, who has looked sharper in recent weeks, drove to the end line and pulled back the cross that became the goal. This is the value of a striker who attacks the channels rather than the box. The Swede has not been the 30-goal name some expected at Arsenal, but his work in the build-up sequences has begun to look indispensable.
He nearly added a second after the restart, side-footing over the crossbar from twelve yards while unmarked. Arsenal will take that miss. They got the one that mattered.
Arsenal’s defensive numbers enter historic territory
Arsenal have conceded six goals in 14 Champions League matches this season. Their nine clean sheets in the competition this season are bettered by only two teams in Champions League history. Real Madrid in 2015-16, and Arsenal’s own 2005-06 side. The same team that reached the only previous final in the club’s history.
Gabriel Magalhães and William Saliba are the foundation. Gabriel’s challenge on Giuliano Simeone six minutes after the restart was the kind of intervention that decides ties. Saliba’s reading of the second balls when Atlético went longer in the second half was equally decisive. Arsenal also needed Alexander Sørloth to fluff a presentable chance with five minutes remaining, but the cumulative point holds. This is one of the most resilient defences in Europe right now.
A test against PSG or Bayern Munich will be sterner than anything Atlético produced. The pattern of the run, though, suggests Arsenal will not be overrun.
Simeone’s bold gamble falls short for Atlético
Atlético’s Champions League campaign this season was admirable, including the elimination of Barcelona. The tie was within their reach for long passages, particularly in the opening half-hour and the second-half period after Griezmann’s chance. But Simeone’s favourite word in Spanish, contundencia, the quality of being decisive in front of goal, was missing when it counted.
Griezmann, in what will likely be his last Champions League appearance before joining Orlando City, gave everything. Four tackles, eight duels, two recoveries in 66 minutes. He started the move that gave Álvarez the night’s first chance and forced Raya into a save with a pullback minutes later. In the second half, with his side a goal down, his shot was saved by Raya before the Frenchman appeared to be brought down by Riccardo Calafiori. Atlético were incensed not to be awarded a penalty.
Simeone made the boldest call of the evening when he withdrew Griezmann and Álvarez with the tie still in the balance. The decision was a coach trusting fresh legs to find a goal his most experienced players had not. It did not work. Sørloth’s miss made the gamble look cruel rather than brave.
For the second half of his Atlético tenure, Simeone has built a side that competes with anyone in Europe across two legs. They have now twice reached a Champions League final in this era and lost both, in 2014 and 2016. There may not be a third opportunity for him and captain Koke. Both stayed on the pitch long after the whistle on Tuesday, saluting the travelling support, finally walking off last.
Arteta’s contract debate moves to Budapest
Some of the noise around Arteta’s contract situation has been louder than it should have been. He has 12 months remaining on his current deal, no major trophy in six years, and a fan base that has cycled between anxiety and belief multiple times this season alone. Tuesday should quiet most of that.
Reaching back-to-back Champions League semifinals is, in the modern format, harder than reaching back-to-back league titles. Reaching a final from this position, having run Atlético Madrid down across two legs, is the kind of achievement Champions League contenders are built on rather than judged by. A win in Budapest, against PSG or Bayern Munich, would change the conversation entirely. A loss would not undo what has already been built.
Either way, the Spaniard who took over a fractured club in 2019 has now done something only one Arsenal manager in the club’s history has done before him. The team that lined up in unison and ran toward both ends of the Emirates at full time understood the weight of that. So did the supporters who lined the streets to greet the bus.
Twenty years is a long time. Arsenal are back.
