While Diego Simeone is trying to ratchet up a lot of noise around Arsenal, Mikel Arteta has been quietly repeating the same message over the past few days. He has reminded his players they have a home game to get to a Champions League final. The biggest fixture of their club careers, from the most familiar environment.
“It’s amazing to play this game at home,” Viktor Gyokeres said of the second leg. “We know what’s at stake, and of course, we have an amazing opportunity.” A staff member went even further, stating, “You wouldn’t have it any other way.”
You might have a different opponent, though. If the setting sounds so enticingly simple, Simeone has been doing his best to complicate it.
The belief from insiders at both clubs is that the Atletico manager wants “Arsenal to lose their heads” – to make the game a battle. The great challenge for Arteta and his squad, then, is to stay composed.
It wasn’t for nothing that Simeone said “we noticed their fatigue” after the first leg, adding that “it gets accumulated from so many games, so much pressure, so much responsibility that’s on them to win the Premier League… and the pressure on them to win the Champions League”.
“It all adds up,” he remarked. Simeone was of course trying to add on even more, to plant more seeds of doubt. He is also trying to play on that perceived tiredness, and make Arsenal tetchy so they lose their way – and potentially lose the tie.
While Simeone would attempt similar with almost any big game, there was already a significant edge to this one from Arsenal’s 4-0 win in October. Some heated moments were made worse by Atletico complaints about cold showers.
So, to an even greater degree than against Tottenham Hotspur and Barcelona, the Madrid side wanted to make the Metropolitano intimidating for the first leg. Some at Arsenal felt it went way beyond the atmosphere, to the point the bad feeling arguably shapes this second leg as much as the 1-1 scoreline.
After many Barcelona and Spurs players slipped at the Metropolitano, Arteta’s staff wanted to be vigilant about the pitch. Arsenal sources felt the grass was a few millimetres over the Uefa regulations of 30.
The Emirates pitch is likely to be a mere 20mm for Tuesday night. There wasn’t just suspicion about the height of the grass at Atletico, though, but also the slickness.
Arsenal players and staff – and even some media – thought that the Atletico sprinklers didn’t seem to be distributing the same amount of water to either half, even though Uefa regulations also dictate that’s exactly what they must do.
One figure in the Arsenal camp was even laughing about how there was very little power for one side of the pitch and the sprinklers didn’t rotate. A “token effort” was the description.
If a focus on such details seem absurd before a game of such scale, these are the margins that those involved immerse themselves in.
The details also just served to spike the mood, so that it was inevitable there would be some kind of confrontation like that surrounding Ben White walking on the Atletico crest. The Independent has been told the moment even saw Arteta’s assistant Gabriel Heinze go face to face with his compatriot, Simeone.
Some at Arsenal were initially perplexed about the controversy. They’d seen people walk on the crest moments beforehand, but there’s since been a feeling that the Atletico side were waiting for exactly to happen so as to rev themselves up. Simeone’s team had been flat in the first half. They came out for the second half roaring. It is a typical Atletico tactic.
Arsenal are now conscious not to fall into such a trap for the second leg.
That awareness was already even discernible in the farrago over Eberechi Eze’s penalty being overturned, which of course saw Simeone at his most animated around the VAR.
While Arteta’s subsequent focus on the decision was fired by genuine anger, there is understood to have been a calculation, too. Arsenal want to undercut Simeone’s attempts to create any of the sense of grievance he usually tries. They might also frustrate the Argentine’s intent to add to “pressure”.
The mood among Arteta’s squad has been much more relaxed since the 2-1 defeat to Manchester City, which many described as a “weight” that hung over the club for months. The manager has also given them more days off, with the admittedly arduous 1-0 win over Newcastle United freeing them so they finally felt released against Fulham at the weekend. That 3-0 victory was their most expansive and assured performance this year, probably since the second half of the 4-1 over Aston Villa.
It helped that Arsenal did feel they largely controlled the first leg, outside that 20-minute spell from which Atletico did secure a crucial equaliser. Simeone’s camp would respond they had the better chances, and they felt just as confident coming out of the game.
Other details have changed. The return of Bukayo Saka, Kai Havertz and Riccardo Calafiori makes Arsenal a different team, while Martin Odegaard is fit again. Arteta will be able to attack with more incisiveness.
A deeply determined Simeone naturally has a plan for that, too, however. These are the sort of games he loves.
With the emphasis on Arsenal to take the initiative, Simeone can be perfectly prepared to just sit and wait for that one error. It’s where that pressure can again ratchet up in a different way.
These second legs can take on a life of their own, after all, which is pretty much why the Champions League semi-finals have served up the highest level of club football over the past decade.
It’s like being so close to the final without actually being the final drives everyone to higher levels, because there isn’t the same gripping tension as when the trophy itself is on the line.
So, even if this doesn’t reach the peaks of Bayern Munich-Paris Saint-Germain, it can become an epic of its own.
Both teams go in refreshed. Even before Arsenal beat Fulham, Atletico were able to rest their best XI for the 2-0 win away to Valencia at the weekend.
There is certain to be some key tactical moves, too, of the type that really elevate these games. Simeone can keep Arsenal guessing about his formation after the success of the second-half switch to five at the back. Arteta can now completely change the emphasis of his midfield by bringing in a resurgent Myles Lewis-Skelly, to go with how Havertz gives a different dimension to the attack than Gyokeres.
Both sides also know that Arsenal have a much stronger bench, that can make a difference late on.
All around, though, you can just sense why the Champions League is what it is – especially for the two biggest clubs that haven’t yet won it.
“I want it so much,” said Antoine Griezmann, who is hoping the actual final will be his last in the competition, rather than this. “I have so much excitement, to live it, to play it, and hopefully we can succeed.”
Arteta’s words were similar.
“I can’t wait, I feel the energy in and amongst the team,” the Arsenal manager said. “They have been waiting a long time to have this kind of night. Something amazing can happen.”
That anticipation is really all the emotion you need. And yet this one has even more.
The challenge might actually be not giving into it, to take that final step.
