CHAMPIONS LEAGUE 

ARSENAL 1 (Saka 44)

ATLETICO MADRID 0

CATCH you breath. Arsenal are in the Champions League final after a battle royale at the Emirates.

The Gunners were collectively brilliant and fully deserved the riotous reception at full time.

A party is blowing up across north London right now.

Viktor Gyokeres provided the guile and skill up front, with Leonardo Trossard relentlessly probing on the left wing and Miles Lewis-Skelly – preferred over Martin Zubimendi – revelling in his new central defensive midfield role.

William Saliba and Gabriel defended like beauty and the beast – and apart from one moment of chaos looked unbreachable.

But all of the players, including the substitutes, deserve huge credit on an intense night where focus was high and mistakes were few and far between.

Despite all the talk about the fantasy attacking football shown Bayern and PSG last week, Arsenal are in form and real contenders to go on and conquer Europe’s elite for the first time.

And after a few months of uncertain play, the machine is purring again like it was at the start of the season – and the fans are absolutely loving it.

Long after the match ended in a kind of jubliant madness, Mikel Arteta said: “It’s an incredible night, we made history again together.

“The reception we received before the game. An incredible job.”

Barely comprehensible, the manager blurted out: “My wife, my kids, my parents, my sister. Everyone at the club.

“I know what it feels. You think it will be an incredible night, you look at someone in the eye, and they are incredibly happy, it makes sense.

“Sometimes it is difficult to know why we do it, but these moments tell us.”

It was a brief press conference with analysis not really needed after a gritty but absorbing blood and thunder football tie.

Arsenal controlled the opening exchanges calmly despite the deafening atmosphere – possibly the loudest there has been at the stadium.

But it was Alvaro Alvarez who eeked out the first half chance.

Riccardo Calafiori had the first effort for Arsenal, suprisingly lashed a shot from distance after Ben White did well to bring down a Raya long ball down with some tight control.

Every pass and tackle was being greeted with a huge roar and the atmosphere certainly helped keep up the intensity.

The defence was easily opened up however almost immediately in a second decent chance for the visitors.

But Arsenal looked like they were going to get chances.

Bukayo Saka had almost too much time to think about a looping corner from Declan Rice that he fumbled at the back post.

Gabriel was next to fire in a long ranger – comfortably wide.

And then Viktor Gyokeres rolled into action. Twice he used his body brilliantly to take down hopeful long balls, before skillfully laying off.

It was the story of the night for the Arsenal number 9 who was superb throughout, despite missing a couple of good chances to score.

Even at the death he was chasing down long range passes, hustling and bustling about and causing a nightmare for the defence.

Lewis-Skelly was all over the pitch, and in the first half wriggled to the byline before laying a lovely ball across face – to no one.

The ref was letting the play run and having none of the pretend injuries that so often disrupt the rhythm of modern football.

There was a big shout for penalty after Trossard was bashed over, but he went down a bit easily and the ref didn’t buy it.

Rice was next to thunder in a shot that was blocked, but the pressure was mounting near the end of first half.

And then the resurgent Bukayo Saka scored just before half time bundled in from close range after a Trossard stinger was palmed away poorly by Oblak.

There was one terrible mistake from Saliba in the second half that Gabriel managed to claw away with a last ditch tackle.

It was heart attack moment.

And shortly after Antoine Griezmann fired in a fierce shot that Raya blocked, the rebound was just ushered out by Gabriel.

The VAR checked for a pen and there was a nervous moment but it never looked like it was on.

Piero Hincapie came on for Calafiori and was rock solid. He very rarely misses defensive header and is almost more of a beast than Gabriel.

But he also made some darting runs down the wing into space, collecting precise passes from Trossard.

Along with Hincapie, Noni Madueke came on for Saka and Odegaard for Eberichi Eze in a triple sub move by Arteta.

The shake-up – quite early before the hour mark – caused a bit of chaos and the game descended into a disorganised scrap for a few minutes.

Martin Odegaard had a great chance almost immediately after coming on but his curling shot flew well over.

Then Gyokeres stroked a first time shot over the bar in his best chance of the match, after Hincapie had whipped in a perfect cross for him to latch onto.

The big man won several balls he should have had no hope of getting and claimed several corners to take the pressure off.

Gabriel was a titan at the back even though the stakes were so high and the margins so fine injury time was seen out in style. He looked close to death at the end of this bruising encounter.

Several players and coaching staff including Diego Simeone – got booked at the end in a melee as emotions ran over.

The league is still all fans care about and tonight was a bonus. But confidence is sky high – and why not?

Arteta said: “We have to prepare now for Sunday, we have four days to do that. Enjoy it, but then live the present.

“It is an incredible group of players and staff. But if you work it, you can reward it.” 

Arsenal: Raya, Calafiori (Hincapié 58), Gabriel, Saliba, White, Lewis-Skelly, (Zubimendi 74), Rice, Trossard (Martinelli 83), Eze (Ødegaard 59), Saka (Madueke 58), Gyökeres
Subs not used: Kepa, Dowman, Havertz, Mosquera, Setford, Nørgaard, Jesus

Atletico: Oblak, Ruggeri, Hancko, Le Normand (Molina 57) Pubill, Lookman (Cardoso 57), Koke, Llorente, Simeone (Sørloth 57), Alvarez (Almada 66), Griezmann (Baena 66)
Subs not used: Almada, Boñar, Díaz, Giménez, Lenglet, Mendoza, Musso, Vargas