There has long been a contradiction at the heart of Arsenal’s being.
They are English football’s grand old patrician club. They are our aristocracy, as Real Madrid are in Spain and as Bayern Munich are in Germany and as Juventus are in Italy. They are the club of the Establishment and the wealthy. The Prime Minister supports them.
They have stood for the best and most advanced things in the game. When the beautiful art deco East Stand was opened at Highbury in 1936, it was acclaimed as the wonder of the football world, the last word in elegance and luxury.
Arsenal enjoyed periods of domestic dominance, too. Until the mid-1980s, they were one of only two English teams to have won the league and FA Cup double in the twentieth century. When Arsene Wenger took over in 1996, he changed the culture of the English game. His teams played beguiling, cerebral football. In 2003-04, they were Invincibles.
But for more than 60 years, since English clubs started playing in European football, there has been a yawning gap in their resume. They have never won the biggest club prize in the game. Six other English clubs had won the European Cup or the Champions League but never Arsenal.
Arsenal are still missing a Champions League trophy in their cabinet at the Emirates Stadium
It was PSG’s night in Budapest as the French side retained their trophy with a shootout win
Still bathed in the light and the glory of winning their first Premier League title for 22 years, Arsenal came to the Puskas Arena on Saturday evening to put that right, to complete part two of rewriting an identity that had seen them mocked as bottlers and chokers.
They came agonisingly close to turning those six English winners into a Magnificent Seven. They took the lead against Luis Enrique’s brilliant Paris Saint-Germain team and held that lead until just after an hour had elapsed but then they could hold it no more.
But they still dug in. They dug in and they would not yield. They were quite magnificent in their defiance and none more so than Gabriel and William Saliba, their centre halves. They took PSG all the way to penalties and there were times, even in the shoot-out where it felt as if this was to be the night they realised their European dream.
It felt that way especially when David Raya saved superbly from Nuno Mendes and when Gabriel Martinelli thumped his penalty high into the net. The prize drew closer and closer but then Gabriel, the rock of the team, the rock of the night, stepped up to take Arsenal’s final penalty.
Credit him with the guts to do it. Penalties are not his job. But he leaned back as he struck it and the ball sailed high over the bar. Penalties are a cruel, cruel method of losing a football match. The last person who deserved that fate was Gabriel.
After their defeat to Barcelona in Paris 20 years ago, Arsenal’s record in Champions League finals now reads played two, lost two.
PSG deserved the win. They have been the best team in the latter stages of the competition. They enjoyed 75 per cent possession and their 4-3 win on penalties made them only the second side in the last 35 years to retain the Champions League trophy. They trounced Inter Milan last season. This was very different.
And so there was to be no Double for Arsenal. This would have been the best season in their history had they won that shoot-out. They would have outranked the Invincibles of 2003-04. Now they have to be satisfied with scaling the peak of the Premier League. They have one more mountain left to climb.
Next season, this competition will be their priority. This is the trophy they need to marry their history and their bearing with reality. This is the trophy they need to be complete.
They left it all out there on Saturday night. Arteta made some bold calls in the composition of his starting line-up. The boldest of them was to start Myles Lewis-Skelly in the centre of midfield alongside Declan Rice. It felt like the right call, too: since he forced his way into the side late in the season, he has brought the kind of urgency and tempo to midfield that Martin Zubimendi had stopped providing.
Gabriel blazed over when Arsenal needed him most as the Gunners’ wait for the Champions League crown goes on
Mikel Arteta suffered the cruelty of having to walk past the trophy without getting his hands on it
Before the football could start, the crowd had to endure the spectacle of a band performing on a stage in the centre circle in what looked like a giant advertisement for a fizzy drinks company. It was the first vapid opening ceremony of what is likely to be a summer of opening ceremonies.
The PSG fans unveiled a tifo of a figure holding the Champions League trophy tight to their chest, arms wrapped around it. ‘Toute une ville veille sur elle,’ the slogan beneath it read. ‘An entire city is watching over her.’
Arsenal did not pay much heed to those words. They found it hard to get a touch of the ball for the first five minutes but then PSG made a mistake and Arsenal struck. Marquinhos tried to clear the ball on half way but hit it straight at Leandro Trossard.
The ball ricocheted off Trossard into the path of Havertz and he set off for goal. He ran and ran and got closer and closer to Matvei Safonov in the PSG goal. Safonov tried to cover his near post. He crouched slightly. Havertz slammed the ball over the goalkeeper’s head, so hard he did not have a chance to react.
At a stroke, Havertz, who scored the winning goal for Chelsea against Manchester City in the 2021 final, had justified his inclusion ahead of Viktor Gyokeres. He also became only the third player to score for two different teams in a Champions League final, after Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United and Real Madrid) and Mario Mandzukic (Juventus and Bayern Munich).
PSG resumed where they had left off. They dominated possession but they could not find a way through Arsenal’s defence. And when Arsenal did have the ball, Lewis-Skelly’s positivity, his readiness to look for a forward pass, made a difference.
Midway through the half, the 19-year-old found space in the middle of the pitch and drove into it before laying the ball out wide to Bukayo Saka. PSG were stretched. Saka ran at Nuno Mendes, beat him on the outside and arrowed in a cross. Safonov spilled it but PSG managed to hack it away.
There was a period either side of half time where it felt as if the German referee was tiring of Arsenal’s tactics. He blew to signal the interval as Saka was preparing to take a corner, signalling that the Arsenal winger had taken too long.
In the first minute of the second half, he booked Cristhian Mosquera for time-wasting. Eight minutes after the interval, he booked Saka for a sliding tackle on Desire Doue on the edge of the Arsenal area. Achraf Hakimi took the free kick but David Raya saved comfortably.
Now the drums began to beat in the PSG, steady and rhythmical and relentless. The white-shirted hordes danced and swayed and waved their arms in unison and PSG came at Arsenal in waves, one after another. An hour came and went. Arsenal held firm.
Then, it changed. Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, who had been quiet until now, played a one-two with Ousmane Dembele and darted into the box. Mosquera tried to track Kvaratskhelia but he misjudged his tackle and their legs were caught up in a tangle. Kvaratskhelia fell and the referee pointed to the spot.
PSG wanted a second yellow card for Mosquera but the referee did not give it. It was a lucky escape but there was no escape from the penalty. Dembele took it and sent Raya the wrong way. A barrage of flares went off in the PSG end. The volume of support went up. A new wave of confidence flowed through Luis Enrique’s team.
Arteta brought Jurrien Timber on in place of Mosquera and Gyokeres for Martin Odegaard but Arsenal started to look a little ragged. Kvaratskhelia ran in on goal at the same angle Havertz had earlier but Lewis-Skelly got back just in time and deflected Kvaratskhelia’s shot on to the post.
The clock ticked down towards the end of normal time. Raya saved superbly at the feet of substitute Bradley Barcola. Doue slid a ball to Vitinha, who curled it inches over the bar. In the last seconds of added time, Barcola raced through. Arsenal fans could barely watch but Barcola sliced his shot wide.
History escaped Arsenal again as PSG became just the second team to win the Champions League in consecutive seasons
Extra time came. Arteta drew on the depth of his formidable squad. Saka and Trossard went off. Eberechi Eze and Zubimendi came on. It is probably the deepest squad in Premier League history and Arteta searched every part of it to keep his team in the game.
Noni Madueke was on, too, and near the end of the first period of extra time, he pushed the ball past Nuno Mendes and took him on for pace. As he neared the byline, Nuno Mendes appeared to wrestle Madueke to the floor but the referee waved play on.
The Arsenal bench exploded with outrage. The substitutes leapt to the touchline as one. Arteta gesticulated furiously. But Mr Siebert would not be moved. Declan Rice was booked for protesting too much. So was Arteta.
It was the closest the game came to a breakthrough in extra time. Penalties came and history escaped Arsenal again.
