Morning.
As we start to look forward to our Champions League semi-final with PSG, let’s begin today with Arsenal reaching the Champions League final yesterday with a 4-1 over Lyon. What a result against a team with that kind of history and pedigree in this competition, and Arsenal Women will take on Barcelona in Lisbon on May 24th.
Lyon 1-4 Arsenal Highlights
Afterwards, Renee Slegers – who has done an incredible job since taking over – said:
I am so proud of the whole team, I am so happy we achieved this. It is a team performance and I don’t take myself out of what the team is doing, I am on the team. This is the big games and the final stages, but there was so much work we had to do before, we had to qualify for early in the season but all the work the club has done over many years to get us into this position as an organisation to be able to compete on this level.
It’s a first final since 2007, and what an occasion it’s sure to be. It’ll be very difficult against a Barcelona side who dismantled WSL leaders Chelsea over the two legs in the other semi-final, but that’s what you’d expect when you get to this stage of the a competition like this.
Not that anyone needs any extra motivation to win the Champions League, but no club has ever won the men’s and women’s in the same year. Just a little something extra for the lads to consider as they prepare for the difficult task of beating high profile French opposition in the semi-final having also beaten Real Madrid in the quarter-finals. In seriousness though, why shouldn’t it act as a kind of inspiration? 2007 for the women’s last final, 2006 for the men’s only final – differing outcomes in those finals, of course, but there’s a chance to do something extra special so let’s give it all we’ve got.
I don’t know exactly what the recording schedule is, Tim is travelling back from Lyon, but he and Jamie will help you re-live that semi-final comeback in an Arsenal Women Arsecast at some point.
Later this evening, Mikel Arteta will meet the press at Emirates Stadium, rather than London Colney where these gatherings usually take place. I assume that’s because of the high profile nature of tomorrow’s game, and a need to accommodate a larger group of media? Maybe it’s just a nicer room to have a press conference in.
I’m sure he’ll be laser-focused on the job at hand (beating PSG), and after yesterday I imagine he’ll be very proud of what Arsenal Women did in Lyon. But, I also think he’ll have been smarting just a bit after Liverpool were crowned Premier League winners. You didn’t need to be any kind of genius to predict how yesterday would turn out given the opposition in question, but I think it will have hurt him to see the title decided at Anfield.
I say this with the very best of intentions … I hope it hurt him a lot, because I think when he reflects on our season – one which could still end in a hugely positive way – there are some lessons to be learned. We don’t need to go into the nuts and bolts of them here, they are things we have discussed over the course of the campaign more than once, but the job in the summer is to correct those, go up another level next time out and do better.
The reality is Liverpool have been the best team this season, the most consistent, and blessed with the best player in the world right now having the season of his life. Those are some pretty potent ingredients that, even with a clean bill of health and a bit less of the nonsense that has impacted our season, would be tough to contend with. I also think we need to recognise that this didn’t just happen in a vacuum, Liverpool have been a very good side for a long time, not some kind of surprise package. I sent a congratulatory text to the Mugsmasher yesterday, he was watching it in a bar with his mate who is a Sp*rs fan, which probably made it a bit more fun.
Right, I’m gonna leave it there for now, but as ever we’ll have an Arsecast Extra for you today. We’ve already put out the call for questions on BlueSky @gunnerblog.bsky.social and @arseblog.com with the hashtag #arsecastextra – or if you’re an Arseblog Member on Patreon, leave your question in the #arsecast-extra-questions channel on our Discord server.
The pod should be out mid-morning, and later this afternoon we’ll have an episode of The 30 on Patreon, recapping all the weekend’s Premier League action.
Until then, have a good one, and in the meantime enjoy an animated version of the intro to last week’s Arsecast Extra, courtesy of Poorly Drawn Arsenal.
