As David Raya walked out of the cavernous Bernabeu media room, having said Arsenal are “super-convinced” they can win – and then repeating it – Mikel Arteta gave him a knowing nod. The right message had been sent. Something was needed to counter “the narrative”, as the Gunners boss put it.
The main difficulty in Wednesday’s Champions League quarter-final might not even be facing Real Madrid, given what Arsenal did to them in the first leg, but the noise that Real Madrid make.
Jude Bellingham almost laughed when asked which word has been said the most in the dressing room over the last week. The answer was obviously “remontada”, since it is what everyone outside the dressing room has been raving about incessantly.
This is what manifestation looks like. Madrid have almost worked themselves into a fervour. Bellingham insisted “you can’t come into this believing there’s going to be anything other than a comeback”, and Madrid admittedly have the best possible reason for that. They have come back from two-goal-plus first-leg deficits more than any other club in European history.
It’s the great intrigue of this tie, and one challenge that Arteta – and, in truth, very few managers – have ever faced. Arsenal have a 3-0 lead but they’re essentially being gaslit into thinking they are the club facing the pressure, who have it all to do. This is what the Santiago Bernabeu can do to you.
It is one of very few stadiums you can go to with a lead like that and fear that a tie is still alive. The club hierarchy have promised something “special” for the pre-game tifo, which fits with how they’ve been trying to create “ambiente de remontada” all week. Fans have previously had pageantry about how your dream is their reality.
Now, they might well say that what seems impossible for you is inevitable for us.
Real Madrid great Emilio Butragueno was this week telling Madrid’s younger players about the epic comebacks of the 1980s, as Bellingham admitted he’d been watching some of the goals on TikTok. Madrid have naturally put highlights of all of their epic remontadas on social media, which is why Arteta was right to say it’s impossible to shut out.
“That’s the source of education these days,” Bellingham laughed. He did add “it’s infectious”, and spoke about a striking mindset.
“We had one of the worst results that could happen, and now everyone feels it’s nailed on we’re going to come back. It’s a nice feeling… a club like no other, the best in the world.”
This is what Arsenal have to withstand. It does add a genuinely fascinating psychological and sporting dimension to a tie that would otherwise be considered done.
That challenge is sharpened by the relative inexperience and youth of the Arsenal team. The Madrid camp have been all too keen to mention this almost as much as remontadas, pointing to how Arteta’s side have never played together in a stadium like this at a stage like this.
That’s where the Madrid media industrial complex is so effective, for reasons more than transfer campaigns. All of this is of course a vintage attempt to change the feeling around the tie, to make it feel like “anything can happen”. Even Pep Guardiola’s most experienced Manchester City teams have succumbed to that.
That’s precisely what Madrid have to try, though, since this tie proceeding as normal would just see Arsenal go through rather comfortably. There is even the possibility this merely becomes a huge anti-climax, as Arteta’s side just sit and shut Madrid out.
Those within the Arsenal camp even scoff at the idea that youth might be a disadvantage, since they say it has actually afforded this team “a fearlessness”. The travelling fans might understandably be nervous, many of them refusing to book cancellable trips for future rounds out of a fear of tempting fate, but that just hasn’t got through to the dressing room. They’re “super convinced”, you might say. Arteta himself laughed when asked about “fear”.
“I wouldn’t use that word,” the manager said. “It’s respect, and admiration for what they’ve done… but after that it’s just an opposition team.” Arsenal proved that in the first leg, stripping a stale and lethargic Madrid of aura.
“We have the momentum,” Raya said. The goalkeeper then repeatedly said Arsenal are here “to win”, having refused to get into any discussion of remontadas at all. Raya wasn’t going to play that game.
When asked about what game Arsenal would play, Arteta re-iterated that ambition to win. That naturally prompted a question about why he would take such an unnecessary risk.
“Because it’s the way of playing we feel most comfortable with,” Arteta said. “It’s about expression… to be brave, to be better than them.”
That may have revealed a bit of psychology on the other side.
Given how lethal Madrid can be on the break, and how a robust Arsenal don’t need to actually step out, it is hard to believe a manager as canny as Arteta will be so cavalier.
More instructive was actually what he said about “adapting quickly” to whatever happens, and “taking the game where we want”. This was an obvious reference to a Madrid early goal or similar, even if the Basque naturally didn’t want to outright describe that. He doesn’t want his players visualising negatives.
Arsenal have been conscious of this. Arteta and his staff have naturally watched all of Madrid’s recent comebacks, and studied how those games went as they did.
With City’s stoppage-time 3-1 collapse in 2021-22, it was genuinely the “uncontrolled euphoria” that stopped them Guardiola’s side doing what they normally do, while empowering Madrid. Arteta has specifically attempted to prepare for this, if only by working with his players on how to keep at the job at hand rather than dwelling on the potential of actually going behind. Again, “visualisation” is so vital here.
Preparing is one thing, though. The reality is something else.
Such is the history of this stadium that the temptation is almost to call it a “magical realism”. Ancelotti hasn’t got this far by indulging in such talk, though.
“I say nothing of magic, because magic doesn’t exist.”
He instead appealed to much more corporeal elements, saying Madrid have to “play with your head, heart and balls”.
This is where the headlines were coming in, as Raya repeated Arteta’s line of “writing our own history”.
This is all just another part of the noise, though. “Let’s do it on the pitch,” Arteta said. “It’s the only thing that matters.”
There’s no coming back from there.
As David Raya walked out of the cavernous Bernabeu media room, having said Arsenal are “super-convinced” they can win – and then repeating it – Mikel Arteta gave him a knowing nod. The right message had been sent. Something was needed to counter “the narrative”, as the Gunners boss put it.
The main difficulty in Wednesday’s Champions League quarter-final might not even be facing Real Madrid, given what Arsenal did to them in the first leg, but the noise that Real Madrid make.
Jude Bellingham almost laughed when asked which word has been said the most in the dressing room over the last week. The answer was obviously “remontada”, since it is what everyone outside the dressing room has been raving about incessantly.
This is what manifestation looks like. Madrid have almost worked themselves into a fervour. Bellingham insisted “you can’t come into this believing there’s going to be anything other than a comeback”, and Madrid admittedly have the best possible reason for that. They have come back from two-goal-plus first-leg deficits more than any other club in European history.
It’s the great intrigue of this tie, and one challenge that Arteta – and, in truth, very few managers – have ever faced. Arsenal have a 3-0 lead but they’re essentially being gaslit into thinking they are the club facing the pressure, who have it all to do. This is what the Santiago Bernabeu can do to you.
It is one of very few stadiums you can go to with a lead like that and fear that a tie is still alive. The club hierarchy have promised something “special” for the pre-game tifo, which fits with how they’ve been trying to create “ambiente de remontada” all week. Fans have previously had pageantry about how your dream is their reality.
Now, they might well say that what seems impossible for you is inevitable for us.
Real Madrid great Emilio Butragueno was this week telling Madrid’s younger players about the epic comebacks of the 1980s, as Bellingham admitted he’d been watching some of the goals on TikTok. Madrid have naturally put highlights of all of their epic remontadas on social media, which is why Arteta was right to say it’s impossible to shut out.
“That’s the source of education these days,” Bellingham laughed. He did add “it’s infectious”, and spoke about a striking mindset.
“We had one of the worst results that could happen, and now everyone feels it’s nailed on we’re going to come back. It’s a nice feeling… a club like no other, the best in the world.”
This is what Arsenal have to withstand. It does add a genuinely fascinating psychological and sporting dimension to a tie that would otherwise be considered done.
That challenge is sharpened by the relative inexperience and youth of the Arsenal team. The Madrid camp have been all too keen to mention this almost as much as remontadas, pointing to how Arteta’s side have never played together in a stadium like this at a stage like this.
That’s where the Madrid media industrial complex is so effective, for reasons more than transfer campaigns. All of this is of course a vintage attempt to change the feeling around the tie, to make it feel like “anything can happen”. Even Pep Guardiola’s most experienced Manchester City teams have succumbed to that.
That’s precisely what Madrid have to try, though, since this tie proceeding as normal would just see Arsenal go through rather comfortably. There is even the possibility this merely becomes a huge anti-climax, as Arteta’s side just sit and shut Madrid out.
Those within the Arsenal camp even scoff at the idea that youth might be a disadvantage, since they say it has actually afforded this team “a fearlessness”. The travelling fans might understandably be nervous, many of them refusing to book cancellable trips for future rounds out of a fear of tempting fate, but that just hasn’t got through to the dressing room. They’re “super convinced”, you might say. Arteta himself laughed when asked about “fear”.
“I wouldn’t use that word,” the manager said. “It’s respect, and admiration for what they’ve done… but after that it’s just an opposition team.” Arsenal proved that in the first leg, stripping a stale and lethargic Madrid of aura.
“We have the momentum,” Raya said. The goalkeeper then repeatedly said Arsenal are here “to win”, having refused to get into any discussion of remontadas at all. Raya wasn’t going to play that game.
When asked about what game Arsenal would play, Arteta re-iterated that ambition to win. That naturally prompted a question about why he would take such an unnecessary risk.
“Because it’s the way of playing we feel most comfortable with,” Arteta said. “It’s about expression… to be brave, to be better than them.”
That may have revealed a bit of psychology on the other side.
Given how lethal Madrid can be on the break, and how a robust Arsenal don’t need to actually step out, it is hard to believe a manager as canny as Arteta will be so cavalier.
More instructive was actually what he said about “adapting quickly” to whatever happens, and “taking the game where we want”. This was an obvious reference to a Madrid early goal or similar, even if the Basque naturally didn’t want to outright describe that. He doesn’t want his players visualising negatives.
Arsenal have been conscious of this. Arteta and his staff have naturally watched all of Madrid’s recent comebacks, and studied how those games went as they did.
With City’s stoppage-time 3-1 collapse in 2021-22, it was genuinely the “uncontrolled euphoria” that stopped them Guardiola’s side doing what they normally do, while empowering Madrid. Arteta has specifically attempted to prepare for this, if only by working with his players on how to keep at the job at hand rather than dwelling on the potential of actually going behind. Again, “visualisation” is so vital here.
Preparing is one thing, though. The reality is something else.
Such is the history of this stadium that the temptation is almost to call it a “magical realism”. Ancelotti hasn’t got this far by indulging in such talk, though.
“I say nothing of magic, because magic doesn’t exist.”
He instead appealed to much more corporeal elements, saying Madrid have to “play with your head, heart and balls”.
This is where the headlines were coming in, as Raya repeated Arteta’s line of “writing our own history”.
This is all just another part of the noise, though. “Let’s do it on the pitch,” Arteta said. “It’s the only thing that matters.”
There’s no coming back from there.
