‘No fear. Pure fire’: Mikel Arteta rallies wounded Arsenal before Sporting test

There was a dramatic pause when Mikel Arteta was asked what he wants from the Arsenal supporters against Sporting on Wednesday evening in the second leg of their Champions League quarter-final.

After his attempts to rouse them before the early kick-off against Bournemouth at the weekend by telling them to “bring your lunch” backfired spectacularly with a costly home defeat that ended with some fans booing the Premier League leaders off the pitch, this time the message was more considered.

“No fear. Pure fire,” said the Arsenal manager. “That’s what I want to see from the players, from the people, from myself. That’s it. Go for it because the opportunity is unbelievable. We are in April, we have an incredible opportunity ahead of us. Let’s confront it, let’s go for it by really putting absolutely everything into it.”

In a week that the Spaniard’s ability to get Arsenal over the line has been called into serious question after three successive Premier League runners-up finishes, Arteta seemed at pains to insist that it is business as usual despite three defeats in their past four matches. Crisis? What crisis? Yet considering that they had only lost three times in their previous 49 games in all competitions, with Manchester City breathing down their necks again and major doubts about when talisman Bukayo Saka will play again due to an achilles issue, this surely ranks as the biggest challenge Arteta has faced since taking over in 2019.

“It was a big disappointment and a hard one to take,” he reflected on the defeat by Bournemouth that left City within striking distance before Sunday’s showdown at the Etihad Stadium. “Especially losing at home when we had the opportunity to make that gap bigger and bring more certainty and get into this week in the best possible manner. What we are trying to achieve is difficult, is challenging, is bumpy at times and it’s supposed to be like this. So you have to confront it and what I basically said: ‘Guys, we are trying to do something in this competition that hasn’t been done in the history of the club in 140 years.””

Arteta was referring to the possibility of Arsenal reaching back-to-back semi-finals in the Champions League for the first time, although he mistakenly thought that this season is the first time they had made it to three successive quarter-finals – a feat that was also managed when Arsène Wenger was in charge between 2008 and 2010. To reach the last four, where they would face Atlético Madrid, Arsenal must still get past a Sporting side that could easily have got something out of last week’s first leg in Portugal had it not been for the heroics of David Raya in goal.

David Raya’s heroics set up Arsenal’s 1-0 win at Sporting in the first leg. Photograph: Ricardo Rocha/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

Ten victories from their 11 matches so far in this competition including five wins at the Emirates Stadium should give them confidence, although Arteta did not enjoy the suggestion that his comments before the Bournemouth game may have increased tension among the home supporters.

“I never mentioned a cup final, but I think obviously the importance of every game, we know what it is,” he said. “We’ve done the same in September, in October, in November, in the Champions League last year. I think the outcome of what you are trying to achieve at the end, or the success or failure of your intention, is based on a result. And you have to accept that, because this is football.”

“Changing the narrative” is another of Arteta’s favourite sayings and, in the absence of Saka for the foreseeable future, Eberechi Eze could have a vital role to play if they are to hold off City’s challenge. The England forward scored the crucial opener against Bayer Leverkusen in the second leg in the last round and is capable of providing the creativity that Arsenal have been lacking so badly in recent weeks. He defended Arteta and has no doubt that they can still end the season with silverware.

“The boss speaks well, and is passionate and you can see the fire that he has in his eyes and his mind. That is being pushed around the whole training ground,” Eze said. “We know the opportunity we have and we know what is at stake, what is possible and we have an opportunity to make history as a club. Regardless of what people say outside, it is about us here and what we are doing and we believe massively, and we have so much confidence in what we are doing. That has been the main message: to focus on what we are doing and letting go of all the noise outside.”

Asked whether the scar tissue of recent failures is affecting some of Arsenal’s players, the £67.5m summer signing added: “From what I can see the team has so much belief and so much confidence. It is one thing to have bad experiences, but what you do with them and how you move forward from them is more important. I see a team full of guys who are ready to help. The boys that have come in this summer are ready to help but the mentality is strong.”