\n<\/p>\n
Arsenal\u2019s quadruple hunt was halved in the space of a week, and their UEFA Champions League hopes were given a stern test by a Sporting Lisbon side that only just squeezed past Bodo\/Glimt to reach the competition\u2019s quarterfinals.<\/p>\n
Sporting, who had to come from 3-0 down following the first leg against Norway\u2019s Bodo, are seven points off leaders Porto in the Portuguese top flight, but were more than a match for the English Premier League leaders in Lisbon on Tuesday, with only a late Kai Havertz strike separating the sides.<\/p>\n list of 4 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n The 1-0 win favours Mikel Arteta\u2019s side ahead of the second leg in London next week, but it was another game that left the Gunners with as many questions as answers.<\/p>\n Back-to-back defeats leading into the game \u2013 in the League Cup final against Manchester City and the FA Cup quarterfinals against second-tier Southampton \u2013 have left Arteta\u2019s team in danger of a late-season slump.<\/p>\n Having finished third in the Premier League for the last three seasons, their chances of dropping the \u201cnearly men\u201d tag look good this year.<\/p>\n They hold a nine-point lead at the top of the English table, with seven games to play, although Pep Guardiola\u2019s City in second do have a game in hand.<\/p>\n Even substitute Havertz\u2019s injury-time winner in Lisbon, however, could not paper over the cracks of another troubled performance for the Gunners, and against a side that have never made it beyond the quarterfinals of the competition.<\/p>\n Sporting had 10 shots on goal compared with Arsenal\u2019s seven, while five were on target compared with the Gunners\u2019 four.<\/p>\n Arteta said going into the match in Lisbon that the questions about his team are to be expected, despite their Premier League lead and having won all but one of its games in the Champions League this season.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been like this for the last nine months, and that\u2019s going to continue; that\u2019s never going to change when you play at this level for this club,\u201d he said ahead of the match at Estadio Jose Alvalade.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s always going to be a question mark, and that\u2019s it. You have to live the present; you have to deliver it every day.\u201d<\/p>\n The question mark is not only over his side, though.<\/p>\n The Spaniard struggles to hide his emotions, particularly in defeat, and Al Jazeera understands that this is an area of concern for certain members of Arsenal\u2019s hierarchy, who believe the former midfielder\u2019s intensity at crucial moments could be holding his side back.<\/p>\n The slump, marked by the first time they have been beaten in successive games in this campaign, has plunged the club\u2019s long-suffering fans into a bout of soul-searching.<\/p>\n The north Londoners have not won a trophy since the 2020 FA Cup, and their \u201cnearly men\u201d tag has raised doubts about their ability to finally land silverware.<\/p>\n Arteta, however, is convinced they can handle the mounting pressure of bidding to win the Champions League for the first time, while aiming to finally lift the Premier League trophy after a 22-year wait.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the season, you always have moments, normally two or three. This is the first moment that we have with a certain level of difficulty,\u201d Arteta said in the build-up to the match in Lisbon.<\/p>\n \u201cI love my players; what they have done for nine months. I\u2019m not going to criticise them because we lost a game in the manner that they are putting their bodies through everything.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m going to defend them more than ever. Someone has to take responsibility. That\u2019s me, and we have the most beautiful period of the season ahead of us,\u201d Arteta added.<\/p>\n Arsenal routed Sporting 5-1 in Lisbon in the league phase of the Champions League, a far cry from the continued nervy display by the Gunners on Tuesday.<\/p>\n The soundbites from Christian Norgaard, which struck an upbeat note in the face of adversity heading into the Sporting match, would have been something that those doubting Arteta\u2019s temperament were relieved to hear in the halls of power at Emirates Stadium.<\/p>\n \u201cThe message is to have a positive body language, to talk with your teammates, with the coaching staff. Now is not the time to go with our heads down for too long,\u201d the Arsenal midfielder said on Monday.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s fine to be frustrated and also to analyse what went wrong, but then we also have to look forward, because there are so many big games coming up for this club.\u201d<\/p>\n Arteta did talk about his side turning the pain of the last two results into gain, drumming into his players to embrace the defeats, while\u00a0fighting off outside noise about yet another late-season swoon.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat you have to be is clear,\u201d he said on Monday. \u201cInstead of panic, understand if that happens, why it happened, and bring clarity. And when you analyse that and you accept that, you will be better. That\u2019s it, and that\u2019s the thing that we have to do.<\/p>\n \u201cHave some perspective on how difficult it is. Feel that pain, feel that emotion, and use it to be better and to improve. There are a few things that we have discussed internally, and I\u2019m very convinced that we\u2019re going to see that.\u201d<\/p>\n The players were filmed partaking in team-building exercises in training on Monday, alongside their usual footballing drills ahead of the match in an attempt to shake off the blip.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have full belief,\u201d Arsenal goalkeeper David Raya told Prime after the game, in which his ability was hailed as the key performance on the night.<\/p>\n \u201cWe absolutely believe [we can win the Champions League]. If you don\u2019t believe, you are never going to win it, no matter what you go through.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to go back to what we are, be ourselves, learn from losing two competitions straight away, and learn from the pain in the belly.<\/p>\n \u201cThat is the main message to send out there.\u201d<\/p>\n The win also cheered his manager, but Arteta could not hide from the areas of concern, which threaten to derail a season that has arguably promised more than any other in the club\u2019s history.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m very happy to win away in the quarterfinal of the Champions League,\u201d the Arsenal manager told Prime.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we got into the final third, we needed to be crisper and more efficient.<\/p>\n \u201cWe lacked the final pass, but a clinical moment won it for us in the end.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you get to this stage of the season, everyone has to make an impact. We need the big players to turn up and win us the game.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had to reveal ourselves today, and I talk a lot about identity, and we saw that tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n Whether the failings of the last few seasons, and the feared restrictions that Arteta\u2019s identity placed on the side, have passed will only be fully revealed if at least one piece of major silverware is finally lifted once again by the North Londoners.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Arsenal\u2019s quadruple hunt was halved in the space of a week, and their UEFA Champions League hopes were given a stern test by a Sporting Lisbon side that only just squeezed past Bodo\/Glimt to reach the competition\u2019s quarterfinals. Sporting, who had to come from 3-0 down following the first leg against Norway\u2019s Bodo, are seven […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18083,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18082\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n
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