So it wasn’t pretty to watch as Arsenal went 2-0 down to CSKA Moscow, and it was looking very precarious until Danny Welbeck pulled one back to give us a little cushion, but isn’t the most important thing that we did just enough to ensure we went through to the semi-final?
Petr Cech certainly thinks so! He said: “There’s a big responsibility for everyone as we know it is difficult in the league,” he is quoted as saying by The Sun. “Someone would have to have a meltdown in the last seven games to give us an opportunity to sneak into the top four.
“This is our chance to book our Champions League spot. But not only that, you play a European competition for a cup – and one the club has never won. So this is a chance to add a great trophy to the cabinet. You need to keep the progression by winning things.
“The start of the game [against CSKA] was not what we planned. But in any European competition, you just need to play well enough to go through. This is more important than beautiful football.”
To be fair, ending up with a draw over in Russia is not such a bad result and certainly not as bad as losing to the minnows of Ostersunds in the last round, but the fact is that both of those games ended up with us getting into the next round and getting us closer to a place in the final.
So now we have to beat Atletico Madrid to get over the last hurdle, and I don’t care if we lose one of those games either as long as we get to the Final.
Onwards and Upwards!
Darren N