Arsenal have not made it past the Champions League semi-finals since 2009, but manager Mikel Arteta wants his side to write their own history when they host Real Madrid for the first leg of their quarter-final at the Emirates on Tuesday.
Madrid, the record 15-times European champions, have won six Champions League titles since 2009 while Arsenal continue their hunt for a first crown. Arteta, whose team last year bowed out of the competition after a quarter-final loss to German side Bayern Munich, urged his side to back themselves.
“It’s a club (Madrid) that has set new standards in world football. This is where we want to be, where we want to belong,” Arteta told reporters. “It’s part of their history. We have to write our own history. We have to focus on our thing. They can hurt us a lot but we can too. With a lot of hope that we can get a result, that we can do it. We need to be convinced that we can do it. We need to just enjoy it. It will be just the first leg, the intention is clear for tomorrow. We’re going to go for it.”
Winger Bukayo Saka did not start in Arsenal’s 1-1 Premier League draw at 15th-placed Everton on Saturday, only coming on in the 46th minute.
The 23-year-old England international, who has scored 10 goals and provided 14 assists in 26 matches in all competitions for Arsenal this season, had only made his long-awaited return from a hamstring injury on Tuesday. Arteta said Saka was in a much better place now. “We have built his minutes and he’s coped with that really well,” the Spaniard added.
Meanwhile, Saka believes his enforced break could benefit him and his club as they prepare to face holders Real Madrid. Saka has emerged as arguably the most irreplaceable player in Arteta’s squad and while his return from a serious hamstring injury has probably come too late to salvage Arsenal’s Premier League title hopes, European glory is a realistic aim.
“I think mentally it was really good for me,” the 23-year-old Saka, who missed more than three months after sustaining an injury before Christmas, said. “Obviously it was really tough for me initially to find out the extent of my injury, that I was going to have surgery, it was really tough for me to hear the news at first but once it was done and successful I was just focused on coming back stronger and I had a lot of time.”
Saka missed England’s opening two World Cup qualifiers last month but scored on his return for Arsenal in the Premier League win against Fulham last week. If Arsenal are to stun Real Madrid, they will need Saka firing on all cylinders and he believes his relative freshness will give him an edge against the Spanish giants.
“The past five years I’ve been playing game after game so it was the first proper break I’ve had,” he said. “It was really good for me. I got to do a lot of things that I don’t normally do. It’s really nice to be back and I feel fresh mentally. I’m just focused now on the positives and I couldn’t ask to come back at a better time of the season than now.”
Saka’s importance to Arsenal is underlined by his statistics this season on 10 goals and 14 assists in 26 matches in all competitions, including four goals in the Champions League. Arsenal were stopped at the quarter-final stage last year by Bayern Munich when they were still neck and neck with Manchester City in the battle for the Premier League title.
This time, all their eggs are in their European basket and Saka says Tuesday’s first leg could be one of the best occasions ever witnessed at the Emirates Stadium. “It’s a very big night and the stakes are high against one of the best teams in the competition,” he said. “It’s the first time the club has been in back-to-back Champions League quarter-finals for a while, so tomorrow night we want to take the next step and try and get over the line.”
