Frank Lee
Watching Liverpool beat Manchester City in Tuesday night’s Champions League final second leg, the memory went back to 2008 and Arsenal’s own quarter final with Liverpool. Then, as now, Liverpool enjoyed some fortune in qualifying, the most blatant example being a stonewall penalty not given in the first leg when Dirk Kuyt pulled back Alex Hleb in the area on 65 minutes with the scores level. At the Etihad, City should have been 2-0 up before half-time, but Leroy Sane’s goal was wrongly awarded as offside. The linesman flagged it, but didn't the official behind the goal see that the ball had come to the City player from a deflection off Liverpool’s James Milner? Pep Guardiola was rightly indignant and his protests at half-time saw him sent to the stand.
Still, to suffer such injustices with the stakes so high, you at least have to be in the mix at this stage of the competition. Liverpool progressed to the last four, and it’s worth pondering how – in the Wenger era, the Anfield club have managed to do this on four occasions in ten attempts compared to Arsenal’s two semi-final appearances in 19 campaigns. Might it have been something to do with the abilities of Rafa Benitez, who achieved three of those runs to the last four? Or were they lucky every time? Then, again, to achieve that fortune, you have to at least make the last eight. The Gunners have achieved this only six times out of 19, progressing further only twice.
Bayern Munich’s qualification last night took me back to another Arsenal memory from recent years. It was the assertion of CEO Ivan Gazidis, after the club signed a new deal with Emirates and looked forward to the end of their existing kit deal with Nike, that the club could now “compete at a level like a club such as Bayern Munich”. That was in the summer of 2013.
I took a look at the semi-finalists of the last five Champions League tournaments to see what Bayern’s level was.
2014 – Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Atletico Madrid, Chelsea
2015 – Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Barcelona, Juventus
2016 – Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Atletico Madrid, Manchester City
2017 – Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, Juventus, Monaco
2018 – Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Roma, Liverpool
Four semis in five seasons, although they have been eliminated every time. In that period, Arsenal have taken part in four Champions League tournaments and never made it past the last 16. Twice in that time, they were eliminated by Bayern, on the last occasion by a humiliating 10-2 aggregate scoreline.
There’s an article in the current issue of The Gooner (which can be bought online here or at home and away matches on your approach to the stadium) by Peter Le Beau titled ‘Travelling Hopefully, But Never Arriving’. The writer concludes that Arsenal, given their historical stature in the domestic game, have under-delivered in European competition. Part of the reason for this is the fact that the club have lost four of the six finals they have taken part in.
When Ivan Gazidis talked about the level of Bayern Munich back in 2013, he was presumably referring to what the club would be able to afford in terms of transfer fees and wages. In Europe, since then, Bayern have certainly been as consistent as Arsenal were in the four seasons after, except for the German club, that consistency has generally meant the predictability of a semi-final exit. Arsenal’s level was to drop out two rounds earlier.
In fairness to Arsene Wenger’s team, the record of Premier League clubs generally, in spite of their resources, has not been impressive in the Champions League of late. The period from 2005 until 2012 saw seven final appearances by English sides, but since then there have been none, and only three semi-final appearances. So much for the greatest league in the world?
But Ivan Gazidis was not comparing the Gunners with other domestic outfits. Bayern was the benchmark he set. Winning the Europa League would be a start in the attempt to reach anything like the standard achieved by the Bavarian club, regarded as genuine competitors, rather than also-rans, for the continent’s biggest club prize. Arsenal need to build a reputation in Europe at odds with their humiliating and predictable CL exits, because currently, they feel like the poor relative compared to even England’s other under-achieving sides.
Logic says that, with a three goal advantage from the first leg, they should qualify. However, Roma’s triumph against Barcelona and Juventus going 3-0 up in Madrid should serve warning that nothing can be taken for granted and that Arsenal need ensure they are focussed and ready to contain CSKA Moscow’s attack.
