It may be carnival time in Eindhoven this week but Arsenal are definitely not in town to party. Having seen their hopes of chasing down Liverpool in the Premier League title race slip away, Mikel Arteta knows that it is Champions League or bust for their chances of bringing home silverware this season.
The Arsenal manager was in a positive mood before the first leg of their last-16 tie against PSV, even if he refused to contemplate the prospect of a quarter-final showdown with either Real or Atlético Madrid should his side progress. After a campaign that has been repeatedly knocked off course by injuries and ill-discipline, matching last season’s achievement of reaching the last eight of this competition for the first time since 2010 would at least be something for Arteta.
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Yet perhaps it was a recognition of the mammoth task Arsenal face just to get past the Dutch champions given their lack of options in attack that he was hardly convincing when asked whether his players had recovered from the mental blow of dropping points against West Ham and Nottingham Forest.
“In the last two results, it’s been very different in terms of performance as well,” Arteta said. “Not getting the result that we want, but certainly being better, especially in the last game than the opposition. And the fact that we have still gears, even with the players that we have, some other gears to take the game to a different level.
“When it comes to that stage, it’s about lifting the level and the standards. Every individual has to be at their best. And when we do that, with the team that we have and the connection that we have between us, we are a really strong team.”
PSV had been hoping Uefa would allow them to schedule Tuesday night’s game 24 hours later to avoid clashing with the Shrovetide festivities. But having overturned a first-leg deficit against Juventus in front of a raucous home crowd to reach this stage, the Dutch champions will certainly be no pushovers despite trailing Ajax by eight points in the Eredivisie standings.
The Philips Stadium is an arena this Arsenal team know well after meeting Peter Bosz’s side in the group stage of this competition last year and the Europa League in 2022. But having been inspired to a 4-0 victory on their first visit here in 2002 by two goals from Thierry Henry, Arteta will be aware that they have not recorded a victory since then in four attempts. PSV have lost several of the players that helped them beat Arne Slot’s Feyenoord to the title last season but remain dangerous opponents. They have scored in every home match so far in this campaign and will fancy their chance of keeping out Arsenal’s makeshift attack.
However, Arsenal’s record of five clean sheets from their eight league-phase games should give their supporters hope that they can at least stay in the tie before next week’s second leg. “That’s the biggest reassurance because this doesn’t happen at that level of consistency for that many months for a random reason,” Arteta said. “It’s because we have it in us and there are certain things we’re going to have to adapt. That’s obviously unquestionable, but we can still be very efficient and a top team.
“Regardless in what situation you are in the league, when you start to come to this stage of the Champions League, there is something else. You feel it in the atmosphere and the energy of the place. It’s something else because it’s a competition you don’t play weekly and you play in a moment where you are in or you are out. And that gives you urgency, and it gets the best out of you.
“The reality is, being a coach, I just look at what is ahead. And what is ahead is a team that has eliminated a team like Juventus with a history. So, I know the difficulty. We played against them a lot in recent years and we know the difficulty of the match.”
Arsenal have only reached the last four of this competition on two occasions and were eliminated by PSV the last time they met them in the knockout stages in 2007 – a year after losing in the final under Arsène Wenger. That side was managed by Ronald Koeman and featured the future Tottenham goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes. The former Spurs winger Ivan Perisic was their hero against Juventus in the last round and Jurriën Timber is wary of the threat his side will face.
“It’s a big challenge,” he said. “PSV have showed everyone that they have a lot of quality, not just up front, but as a team they are very strong. I didn’t need to tell Mikel much because we already played here twice. It will be very difficult.”
