If the âmagic momentsâ, as Mikel Arteta put it, didnât make it clear, two images revealed the scale of Arsenalâs 3-0 victory over Real Madrid in the Champions League quarter-finals. One was the scene in the dressing room, where staff congratulating the players could barely be heard over the noise. It was raucous.
When Declan Rice came in with his man-of-the-match award, he was laughing about how Nicolas Jover told him to cross his first free kick. A few yards away, Carlo Ancelotti could barely be heard for very different reasons. The Real Madrid managerâs voice was unusually low for his post-match press conference, which didnât last long. Ancelotti has rarely been so subdued.
That was ultimately because of another message relayed by Arteta, that was heard loud and clear.
That was to âmake it happenâ. The Arsenal manager repeated those words three times after the game, and heâd said them a lot beforehand.
They got through. Arsenal displayed all of the conviction that Arteta has sought to instil into this team over five years. There are times when the Basque can sound absurd as he talks about positivity even after dismal setbacks, but results like this are the point. This is why he didnât sign a forward who he didnât think was the right personality for the squad. It is about conditioning performances like this, where all doubt and hesitation are gone. Everyone is of a singular mindset.
Arteta was proud of what that represented, especially as regards his will to âcontinue to make stepsâ.
His team have made a leap, that is eminently trackable.
In the build-up to last yearâs quarter-final against Bayern Munich, the staff could sense a ânervous tensionâ within the squad. It was the first time the club had been involved in a game of that magnitude for seven years. The feeling was that they werenât quite psychologically ready. There was too much of a hang-up about âthe Bayern badgeâ, and the name. They lost that tie much more meekly than they should have.
As Arteta mentioned on Monday, though, that Bayern quarter-final was essential in terms of going through these experiences. It meant that, by the time this Madrid game came around, there was none of that nervous tension.
By contrast, many of the staff noted a striking confidence within the team. It undeniably helped that Arteta had spent a lot of time deconstructing Madrid, ensuring that the players saw them as the flawed champions they are, rather than just this âauraâ.
There was more to it, though.
Arteta had made a specific point of stating that Arsenal had beaten City and Liverpool in the last two years, so there should have been no concern about the level. It was just about taking that next step.
âMy feeling was that the team was super convinced and we had the trust that we could do it,â Arteta said.
Riceâs first goal was as symbolic as it was significant. With the game still in balance but Arsenal beginning to feel it was tilting their way, they won a 56th-minute free kick in a propitious position.
The frequently-referenced Jover has obviously done a lot of analysis on the numbers behind such situations, and was urging Rice to cross it. How couldnât he when the team hadnât scored a direct free kick since September 2021, and Rice had never scored one in his senior career? It was the logical choice.
What often makes the difference in displays like this, however, is that you have to go beyond logic. You have to âmake it happenâ, as Arteta would say, to go to levels youâre not expected to.
So, as Rice increasingly fancied it, Bukayo Saka helped make up his mind.
âIf you feel it, go for it,â the winger said.
Rice did exactly that. So he made it happen, in spectacular fashion.
Just 14 minutes later, Rice was up again in a similar position. He was now brimming with confidence, and the execution was even better this time.
If the first got you purring for how it was whipped around the wall, this got you off your feet for how it just soared right into the top corner. It was dispatched in Lionel Messi-like fashion.
The next five minutes, then, were up there with anything the great Barcelona teams subjected Madrid to. It was an almost perfect period of play, as Ancelottiâs side just couldnât get out of their area.
Something had to give. The delivery of Riceâs goals ensured there would not be as much attention on Mikel Merinoâs goal, but that was a finish of the highest quality. To drive it into the corner with such controlled power was reflective of how Arsenal overwhelmed Madrid.
Individual brilliance aside, much of the credit for the victory must go to Arteta for his preparation.
One of the key messages that Arsenal worked on before the game was to minimise mistakes, especially in midfield. Thatâs because Madridâs best ability is to suddenly swarm you in the centre and then release the fastest attack in football. There were enough warnings in the first half, as Jude Bellingham was hustling for the ball in the centre only for Vinicius Junior or Kylian Mbappe to be bearing down on goal seconds later.
Far from allowing any doubt to seep in from such breaks, however, Arsenal rallied. Arteta made a few crucial tweaks, and such transitions stopped. Saka began to run David Alaba ragged, as Myles Lewis-Skelly was everywhere.
There was another crucial element, though. Madridâs midfield just couldnât move in the way Arsenalâs could.
Brilliant as Luka Modric has been over a two-decade career, he looked his age here and just couldnât match Rice or Thomas Partey for energy.
Even early in that second half, Arteta kept telling his players to move the ball from âside to sideâ. He saw that Madrid were becoming increasingly exhausted. The Arsenal players also sensed a frustration. A few were aggravated with Bellingham for how he seemed to go in with some challenges.
Arsenal responded in the best way they could: to keep going.
Artetaâs staff had noted Madridâs fatigue from the last three domestic games, where they had conceded eight goals. Arsenal made it three more, in a manner that few had imagined possible in the Champions League.
âBut then it was the theme of the game,â Arteta beamed. âMake it happen.â
You would ordinarily say they have now made the clubâs third-ever Champions League semi-final, except for some huge caveats.
This is Madrid. This is the Champions League. This will be the Bernabeu. If any club can make a comeback like this happen, itâs them.
There will be all sorts of talk in the build-up to the second leg about 2022 and âthe spirit of Juanitoâ, the club legend who was at the centre of Madrid’s most historic European comebacks. Belief is never going to be more important.
To manage that, though, Ancelotti is going to have to come up with an entirely new gameplan. The Italianâs staff were blown away by how well coached Arsenal were, as Ancelotti said his preparation for the first leg had to be âthrown in the binâ.
By contrast, Arsenal have a victory that can be shown in their museum, probably their greatest-ever European win. But that relies on them finishing the job.
They just have to make that happen.