Arsenal lost in Spain but it could have been so much worse.
Trailing by two goals, and a man down after the second-half sending-off of Dani Ceballos, they gained a lifeline in this Europa League semi-final thanks to a Nicolas Pepe penalty with 17 minutes remaining.
It was famously a Juan Riquelme penalty saved by Jens Lehmann in the goal at the opposite end of El Madrigal which carried Arsenal to the Champions League final in 2006 and a decade and a half on, Pepe’s strike down the middle offers fresh hope to Mikel Arteta’s side.
That Bukayo Saka dived to win the penalty – after creating minimal contact with Manu Trigueros in that thoroughly modern way – will not matter to Arteta after a testing night in which his side conceded twice in the opening half-hour.
Pepe’s strike was the Gunners’ first attempt on target and not until injury time did substitute Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang double that figure.
Amid the off-field noise surrounding Arsenal’s future, and Swedish billionaire Daniel Ek’s merits as a possible knight in shining armour, this was a night that pitted their past against their present given the presence of Unai Emery in the home dugout.
Emery, the man who took the poisoned chalice when replacing Arsene Wenger, versus Arteta, the man who replaced him in turn in December 2019. If the autocratic Emery, hindered to a degree by his limited English, struggled to gain wholesale buy-in from Arsenal’s players, he did take them to a Europa League final.
And his expertise in this competition – with three triumphs with Sevilla – has certainly instilled belief in Villarreal, a club looking to end a curse of four previous European semi-final losses.
The stands of the Madrigal were empty but outside the locals did their best to create a sense of occasion, turning up in their yellow shirts outside a stadium adorned with bright yellow tiles. The Yellow Submarine moniker is not misplaced. There were even scores of fan on motorbikes and scooters revving noisily and waving their yellow flags.
It was the hosts who started brightly, taking the lead inside five minutes through Trigueros. Juan Foyth was able to carry the ball deep into the Arsenal half and when Samu Chukwueze took over and ran at Granit Xhaka – again filling in at left-back – and Ceballos, the ball broke to Trigueros who drove a diagonal effort past Bernd Leno.
Arsenal’s night – and their defending – worsened when Gerard Moreno flicked on Daniel Parejo’s corner and the unmarked Raúl Albiol volleyed the ball in at the back post. Penny for the thoughts of Arteta as he put a hand to his head turned to his bench, sipped from his water bottle and muttered a few words to his bench.
The Spaniard has known frustration here before, scoring a free-kick in a losing cause when Everton succumbed in a Champions League qualifier to Villarreal in 2005. This competition presents Arsenal with a route to the Champions League but for long periods they risked returning to the Emirates, where they have not won in five matches, with a significant margin to overcome.
In the first half, they offered little better than a Saka effort curled over from the right corner of the box. With Alexandre Lacazette absent still and Aubameyang fit again after illness but starting on the bench, this was a youthful Arsenal front line with Emile Smith Rowe and Martin Ødegaard, flanked by Bukayo Saka and Nicolas Pépé.
The false nine option is all well and good when you can call on Kevin De Bruyne but Smith Rowe is 20 and learning his game and Arsenal sorely missed a focal point.
They did, briefly think they had a penalty before the break, when Pepe went down after a tangle with Foyth, but the VAR intervened and it was rescinded for the Ivorian’s handball a moment earlier. The sight of Foyth, formerly of Tottenham, advancing largely untroubled to set up Moreno was not the only time their back four looked lacking in protection and they were relieved that Moreno’s heavy touch extinguished the danger.
It got worse soon after the break with Ceballos shown a second yellow card after he trod on the ankle of Parejo. If the Villarreal man possibly milked the moment, for Ceballos, a player with a habit of doing much the same thing, it might be fair to suggest it was a dose of his own medicine. Arteta, who had been preparing to withdraw Ceballos, stood with his head in his hands.
At that stage, Arsenal risked an even heavier margin of defeat. Chuckweze tested Leno who then made an even better save to deny Moreno after he had been fed by Francis Coquelin, former Arsenal man.
Yet Arsenal’s 10 men showed spirit and the fortuitous penalty award and Pepe’s resulting sixth strike of this European campaign marked a shift in momentum. Villarreal ended the night down to 10 too, with Etienne Capoue’s late dismissal, and Arsenal have hope still.
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