‘Nice-guy’ Arsenal blown away by big bad wolf Diego Costa as Atletico Madrid advance to Europa League final with 1-0 win
Ex-Chelsea striker shoulder-charged Nacho Monreal and got shot away after just six minutes — before netting only goal
IT was not so much a passage of play in a football match as a piece of performance art.
When Diego Costa shoulder-charged Nacho Monreal to the floor and got a shot away after six minutes, it was as if he’d done it simply to parody everything Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal had become.
If a bunch of actors had been asked to improvise a scene which encapsulated the way in which Arsenal have lapsed into terminal weakness over this past decade, then it would have been perfect.
Costa had been billed as the Big Bad Wolf, Wenger as Little Red Riding Hood — and that was as close to a fairytale ending as the Frenchman’s 22-year reign will come. It actually took until the stroke of half-time before the Brazilian-born Spain striker with the appetite for destruction managed to find the net for Atletico Madrid.
Arsenal, knocked by the loss of skipper Laurent Koscielny with an Achilles injury early on, had actually played some decent stuff.
But we’ve always known they are well capable of that.
What they lack is the mean spirit of former Chelsea man Costa, who has terrorised Arsenal several times in the past.
After being left on the bench in last week’s first leg, he was back with a vengeance for the return — drifting goalside of Hector Bellerin like a shark into shallow waters, then meeting Antoine Griezmann’s crossfield pass with a strike of lethal certainty.
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Arsenal passed it and passed it and passed it to no avail.
When Costa got the ball he rampaged through the visiting defence with a manic sense of purpose.
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Stick a ring through his nose and it would have looked like something from the Running of the Bulls festival up north from here in Pamplona.
Wenger never quite had a centre-forward like him but he had men with similar attitudes in defence and midfield during his glory years. Men who wouldn’t be bullied.
And so, rather than a Europa League final in Lyon, Wenger’s time will end with Premier League matches against Burnley, Leicester and Huddersfield, none of which mean a thing to the Gunners.
The word is that Arsenal will replace Wenger with a young, inexperienced and cheap coach, so that recently-assembled hierarchy of Sven Mislintat and Raul Sanllehi can have more power.
More weakness, then. On the list of things Arsenal need, that would appear to be pretty low down.
Looking at an unbalanced squad, lacking physical and mental strength, it is difficult to imagine things getting much better next season unless they manage to attract someone with the clout of Atletico’s Diego Simeone.
Someone who can shake Mesut Ozil out of his semi- detached lethargy.
There is only so long you can wander around feeling all misunderstood.
Eventually you’re going to have to deliver when it matters — and Arsenal’s most gifted footballer does that all too rarely.
The chief attribute Arsenal should be looking to identify from their summer playing recruits is not pace, goals or passing accuracy but villainy.
It’s not that they were bad here, for long spells they were better than a side with one of the most impressive European records in recent years. It’s just that when it mattered, Atletico were more clinical.
There had been recent examples of Wenger’s men pulling out a result against quality opposition in big matches — last season’s FA Cup semi-final against Manchester City and final against Chelsea brought impressive victories which few had seen coming.
Those sort of occasions have been the rare visions which kept Wenger believing, even when the rest of us have been unable to see what he thinks is so special about his current squad.
An uncommon level of loyalty towards average players has been Wenger’s chief problem for years now.
He will not be handing his successor a golden legacy. No Champions League place and precious little to build on. No visiting team had scored at Atletico since January and last night Arsenal had to — courtesy of their inability to hold on to a lead against Atletico’s ten men in the first leg at the Emirates last week.
They had their moments, their half-chances, their ball-playing nicey-niceyness.
But it was never enough — even after Costa had puffed himself out, collapsed in a heap and been substituted, they could not find a way.
Wenger will say farewell to the Emirates on Sunday afternoon, with a guard of honour and plenty of fanfare. Yet few will regret his departure and none will question it.
The reasons were all there when Costa floored Monreal in the sixth minute.
It was just all too bleeding obvious.