‘We Have Evolved’ – Arteta Reflects On Last Trip To Sporting Lisbon

By The Editor
on 26th November 2024

Arteta reflects on our trip to Lisbon last year…

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has stated that his team is completely different to the one that visited Sporting Lisbon last year for a Europa League tie and is hoping to prove that on Tuesday.

While the game was part of the 2022/2023 campaign, the clash came in the first-quarter of last year as Arteta rung the changes for the first-leg of our last-16 tie.

The game ended 2-2 on the night with Rubin Amorim’s side eventually eliminating us on penalties in the return fixture at the Emirates Stadium.

A lot has changed for both sides since that encounter, namely that Manchester United has snatched Sporting’s heralded coach in recent weeks.

We’ve also become more mature and physically dominant, though we’re yet to point to a stellar European away win in the past few years.

“It’s normally a good exercise to see the team a few years back and I watched both games back to have an understanding,” Arteta said in his pre-match press conference.

“How we prepared them, what worked well and what didn’t, it’s difficult to recognise the team two years later. You tend to see and look at the game and other stuff in a different way, but it was good.

“It seemed longer ago to be fair, in a way, but here we are again. The good news is we are now in a different competition, a competition that we really want to win, be dominant, be important and this is where we are.

“Every team evolves and talking about Sporting and what they’ve done, it’s been unbelievable. And we have, as well, progressed very much compared to where we were two years ago so it’s going to be a good test,” Arteta added.

We dominated possession in our last visit to José Alvalade Stadium but were eventually let down by some poor defending in the box from Jakub Kiwior and Matt Turner.

Neither player will start Tuesday’s clash as Arteta looks to secure three points and set us up to secure qualification in our upcoming home games.

Amorim’s replacement, Joao Perreira, hasn’t sought to change much, so Arteta will not have to think too deeply about the hosts’ tactical makeup.

Our success will be decided by how well we marshal Sporting’s dangerman in Viktor Gyokeres – the Swede bagged a brace in the Portuguese side’s thrashing of Manchester City earlier this month.