Arsenal “party pooper” Steve McManaman was very eager to point out that Mikel Arteta and his side haven’t won anything yet and claims a Gunners star “has to win” before being classed as the best in the world.
The Gunners took a 3-0 lead to the Bernabeu and left with a 5-1 aggregate win after goals from Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli secured victory in both games.
Saka had missed a penalty in the first half as his awful panenka was saved by Thibaut Courtois, before Real Madrid saw a spot-kick overturned following a five-minute VAR check.
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But Saka made up for his error just after the hour mark, dinking Mikel Merino’s through ball over Courtois, before Vinicius Junior pounced on a William Saliba error to give the hosts false hope.
Mikel Arteta’s side looked comfortable throughout and Martinelli put gloss on the performance by winning the game in injury time as he dashed in behind the Real Madrid from the halfway line before slotting the ball past Courtois.
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But McManaman will wait to “eulogise” over Arsenal and Arteta as they have “an equally difficult tie” coming against Paris Saint-Germain in the semi-final.
McManaman said: “Yes, very impressed. They were excellent over two legs but they’re in the semi-final. That’s all they’re in. We want them to win, and once they win it we’ll eulogise about Mikel, about Declan and everyone else. They’ve done the hard part, they’re in the semi-final but have an equally difficult tie to come up.
“You have to get over the line. It’s fine getting into the quarters and the semis, you have to go on and win it. They deserve every credit for what they’ve done over these two legs, they beat Madrid – a poor Madrid, I thought – but they’ve beaten them convincingly. We wait and see what challenge PSG come and bring because they are a different side to what they faced earlier on in the tournament.”
McManaman was then asked if Saka could be considered the best in the world given his current performances and made a similar point.
McManaman continued: “You have to be successful to be classed with the people we’ve spoken about. You have to win and you have to be a perennial winner. You have to win this tournament because the best teams win this tournament.
“If you can perform like that in the quarter final, brilliant. If you can do it in the semi-final or the final… we’ll be singing his name from the rooftops. You have to give us something because winning a quarter final, I don’t want to be a party pooper, but it is only the quarter final. We’ve been here before.”
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Both Rio Ferdinand and Martin Keown were keen to point out what Arsenal had just achieved across two legs against the 15-time Champions League winners.
Ferdinand said: “I agree with you but, at the same time Macca, you’ve got to come here. Coming here, the holders, and going to them listen, ‘you lot sit in your spot…’”
Keown added: “It’s the first time in 20 odd years that Real Madrid have gone out in the quarter finals. It’s a huge ask.”
