Arsenal got the job done against Sporting. It may be a blueprint for success against Man City

William Saliba and Cristhian Mosquera celebrate Arsenal's progress in the Champions League Justin Setterfield/Getty Images Share articleWhen the full-time whistle blew, Arsenal did not look like a team who had just made the Champions League semi-final. Hands mostly fell to their hips rather than being held aloft in celebration. Some players squatted on their haunches, others collapsed to the ground entirely. They looked mentally and physically exhausted. In the crowd too, relief initially appeared to outweigh jubilation. At Arsenal, fatigue is undoubtedly a factor. For supporters, it has been a draining few days. For players, the exertions of the season are beginning to take their toll. The likes of Eberechi Eze and Piero Hincapie were making their first starts after injury. Declan Rice had spent the previous day laying low with illness — “shattered”, in manager Mikel Arteta’s words. “There is a reason why we are the only English team in the competition, because this league and this schedule takes the hell out of you,” Arteta told his press conference after the game. “It’s very difficult to do what we’ve done.” It seemed to require the stadium DJ to kickstart the party, first by cuing up an anthemic chorus of “North London Forever”, then with the considerably more up-tempo “This Girl” by French DJ Kungs and Australian funk trio Cookin’ on 3 Burners. Gradually, Arsenal embraced the celebratory spirit. This was a night of considerable significance. For the first time, Arsenal have reached consecutive Champions League semi-finals. “We’ve done something that has never been done in the history of our club in 140 years, so that tells you the difficulty of that,” said Arteta. “We have to do it as well in a very special way, missing a lot of important players, big credit to that.” After the disappointment of defeat by Bournemouth on Saturday, Arsenal must have hoped for a dominant performance to restore belief. But his was not a display to dispel the doubters. Shorn of the likes of Martin Odegaard and Bukayo Saka, Arsenal’s attack continues to struggle for fluency. Another potential injury, this time to Noni Madueke, is cause for additional concern. The 90 minutes yielded just one Arsenal shot on target. It was enough, though. Sporting CP managed only a single shot on target themselves. Within this Arsenal performance were hallmarks of the fundamental principles of play that have sustained them through the majority of this season. This was their eighth clean sheet in 12 Champions League games. In their 2025-26 European campaign they have conceded only five goals. It is, by some distance, the best defensive record in the competition. The last quarter of the game ought to have been the most stressful. With Arsenal defending a narrow 1-0 aggregate lead, the tie was in the balance. Sporting threw on substitutes, eager to find a breakthrough. Yet between the 73rd minute and the dying moments of stoppage time, the Portuguese outfit did not muster a shot. Arsenal closed out the game effectively, keeping the ball in the right areas and holding their opposition at arms’ length. Arsenal are one of the best out-of-possession teams in the world. That is what has brought them to this point, top of the Premier League and semi-finalists in Europe. And it is what gives them their best chance of securing a result at the Etihad on Sunday, too. It feels unlikely Arsenal can go to Manchester hoping to trade blows with City’s in-form forward line. They are not about to transform into some cavalier attacking outfit in the final few weeks of the season — especially with key personnel still out. But they can make it difficult, awkward, perhaps even nasty. Even if the attack doesn’t click, they still ought to carry threat from set pieces. They can, this performance showed, grind it out. That may be just what’s required in a game where a point keeps Arsenal six clear at the top of the Premier League. There were other reasons for encouragement here. Martin Zubimendi produced his best performance in weeks, and was cheered on by his team-mates as he collected the player of the match award. Eze’s reintroduction did add some spark to a midfield that had looked lifeless against Bournemouth. Hincapie’s return from injury is timely and welcome. His typically dogged display was another reminder of Arsenal’s best qualities: physicality, organisation, intensity. Those traits provide the team with its foundations. It sets up an intriguing semi-final against Atletico Madrid and Diego Simeone, whose sides tend to share similar characteristics, even if there are differences this season. “At this moment, it’s all about the way you compete,” said Arteta. “When you go on to win titles, that’s what’s going to define the moment. We certainly learned that tonight.” Were Arsenal back to their best? No. But they were recognisably Arsenal. Their best chance of competing at the Etihad will be to lean into that identity. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms James McNicholas has covered Arsenal extensively for more than a decade. He has written for ESPN, Bleacher Report and FourFourTwo Magazine, and is the co-host of the Arsecast Extra Podcast. Follow James on Twitter @gunnerblog