a historic team, despite a turbulent last month

Hay two ways to see Arsenal arriving in Madrid tomorrow for this crucial semi-final against Atlético de Madrid Wednesday: a positive one, based on history; and another more negative one, based on their last month of competition.

Surely, many of the Gunners fans who will attend the Metropolitano would have signed last summer to be, at this point, as the team led by Mikel Arteta is: being the leader of the Premier, although qualified by the three points it leads City but with one more game, with four games left (and five for City) to go; and caressing, just two games away, from reaching what would be the second Champions League final in the club’s history after the one they reached in 2005-06 (and lost) against Barcelona.

Although it may seem like a lie, because of the tradition and because of the thousands of fans that the club has in London (it is the London club with the most followers above Chelsea or Tottenham), Mikel Arteta (MA) has achieved a historic milestone: reach their second consecutive Champions League semi-final (last year they lost against PSG), and only the fourth CL semi-final in the club’s history, since the previous two were with Arsène Wenger (the aforementioned 05-06, won against Villarreal) and the 08-09 (lost against United).

In the Premier, more of the same. This MA Arsenal can achieve its first Premiership for 22 years, since the aforementioned French ‘master’, Wenger won the club’s last Premier back in 2004… one of the only three he has had (98, 02 and 04). It is true that Arsenal does not depend on itself (it already depends on City), but no one can take away the current leadership.

And let’s go to the negative… which is where the red and white fan who goes to the Metropolitano tomorrow can grab. The Gunner team’s last month of competition has been very weak in terms of results. Since the defeat on March 22 against City in the Carabao Cup final (0-2)Arsenal have only won two games of the seven they have played since then: the first leg of the Champions League quarterfinals against Sporting (a poorly deserved 0-1 rout); and last Saturday’s balmy victory against Newcastle (another pyrrhic 1-0).

Los Another five games have involved the aforementioned defeat in the Carabao Cup final against City; defeat against Southampton (2-1) in the FA Cup quarterfinals; and two crucial defeats in the Premier against Bournemouth (1-2) and City (2-1); plus the draw (0-0) in the quarterfinal second leg against Sporting at home (0-0).

And last month of competition (March 22-April 25) that can give hope to Atlético because in those seven games Mikel Arteta’s men barely scored five goals, and never more than one per game, and on the other hand they conceded eight, one of the pillars of the previous ‘concrete block’ that was David Raya’s goal.

This is the good and the bad of an Arsenal that It is still historical… for the moment.