Arsenal do no more than is required to eke past Sporting and one question remains

Arsenal do what is required, and maybe get what they really needed. They don’t just have a 1-0 win away against Sporting in this Champions League quarter-final first leg, that puts them on the brink of a second successive semi-final for the first time in the club’s history. They just have a win again, a good feeling.

You could see it in the joy of the players after Kai Havertz ’s finely taken goal. You could see it in the relief after more superb David Raya saves. All of the noise from the recent domestic cup defeats is drowned out by celebration, that good feeling crucially restored just before the match that really matters to them: Saturday in the Premier League at home to Bournemouth.

Kai Havertz wheels away in celebration after scoring a late winner in Lisbon (Arsenal FC via Getty) ”I think we had a point to prove,” Mikel Arteta said. There is something of a lesson in that, too, beyond what was a classically educated European away performance and yet another productive use of the bench. The substitutes again made the difference, to show another value of squad depth at a time when so much talk is of physical fatigue.

This was the 24th goal and 14th assist brought by Arteta’s bench this season, more than anyone. “Again, the story of the season,” Arteta added. “The finishers come in when the most important part of the game is about to happen and they made the difference for us to win it.