Arteta’s ultimate test in three tough days
MIKEL ARTETA faces a make-orbreak 72 hours in Arsenal’s season.
They must go to Bayern Munich on Wednesday night for their Champions League quarter-final second leg.
That is followed by a trip to Wolves on Saturday night in front of the Sky TV cameras with a 7.30pm kick-off because of the crazy fixture schedule.
But Arteta’s job will be tough if they go out in the Allianz Arena, and then the Arsenal manager has to lift his players to face Wolves.
Suddenly, Arsenal’s season could come down to two games in three days. Going out of Europe would be devastating, but then defeat at Wolves would leave their title hopes in tatters.
On top of that,
Arsenal are nursing a few injury issues. Martin Odegaard limped out of Sunday’s defeat to Aston Villa with a muscle injury.
The hope is that Odegaard – who ran himself to a standstill and regularly gets subbed off towards the end of games after a big shift – will be fit to face Bayern.
These are the games that every player wants to play. But there are issues around Jorginho, who has been managing an Achilles issue for much of the season.
Plus, Arteta probably started Leandro Trossard on Sunday ahead of Gabriel Martinelli as a calculated risk – which did not work – to save the Brazil winger for Bayern.
Martinelli’s pace could be crucial at the Allianz Arena to stretch Bayern on the break but Arteta was probably guilty of not taking each game as it comes, otherwise he would have just picked his strongest line-up to face Villa.
This run of games was always going to be the ultimate test. But somehow Arteta must lift the mood for the trip to Bayern and the chance to reach their first Champions League semi-final since 2009.
They are already breaking barriers under Arteta. The Bayern game is very much alive despite the 2-2 draw at the Emirates last week.
Bayern kept their first clean sheet in 10 Bundesliga games and the fans were chanting about European Cups during their win over Cologne on Saturday.
Bayern are missing Kingsley Coman, Serge Gnabry and Alphonso Davies.
The six-time winners have European pedigree against Arsenal’s poor record, despite the consistency under Arsene Wenger.
They always got out of the group stages but could not get any further.
Now this is a big opportunity for Arsenal. They looked nervous in the first leg. The rock-solid defensive partnership of Gabriel and William Saliba, which has served them so well, even looked a little vulnerable. Maybe they are feeling the effects of a gruelling season.
But they will have to lift themselves one last time for Bayern. Because, ultimately, their whole season might depend on it.