AC Milan vs. Arsenal: Europa League a fitting stage for two fallen giants
Arsenal and AC Milan meet in the Europa League round of 16 on Thursday, providing fans with a telling picture of how much these sides have declined.
Ten years ago, Arsenal and AC Milan faced off in a Champions League round of 16 mega-clash in the San Siro. The first leg had finished scoreless after Arsenal forward Emmanuel Adebayor missed the best chance of the game in injury time.
Arsene Wenger, having criticized his side’s lack of composure at the Emirates, would have been pleased to see his team put the holders to the sword. Cesc Fabregas opened the scoring six minutes from time, before Adebayor made up for his error from the first leg and put the tie to bed in stoppage time. The win was the first ever by an English side at the San Siro, another impressive achievement in what was turning into a promising season for the Gunners.
Arsenal had lost just a single league game since August, were three points clear of Manchester United at the top of the table and were into the Champions League quarterfinals after beating the defending European champions away from home. After three seasons of disappointment, it seemed the club was primed for an overdue resurgence.
A decade on, the Gunners are preparing for another round of 16 tie at the San Siro, this time under very different circumstances. Arsenal have lost three games in a row in all competitions, and six of their last eight. They’re 13 points off the top four and winning the Europa League appears to be the only way to save another lost season. Needless to say, the resurgence never came.
As if to underline that point, in AC Milan, the Gunners could very well be looking at a vision of their future. When the Rossoneri were dumped out of the Champions League in 2008, they had won the competition twice in five years and were only denied a third in the same span by Liverpool’s miraculous comeback in 2005. With such an imperious record, the Italians seemed well on course to matching Real Madrid’s record tally of nine European Cups.
Since then, Real’s lead over Milan has stretched from two to five, and that has been the least of Milan’s worries. Following one final Scudetto in 2011, the club has slowly slipped out of European contention. 2014-15 was the first season in 17 years the Rossoneri wouldn’t compete in either the Champions or Europa League (previously the UEFA Cup).
They spent big this summer, bringing in the likes of Leonardo Bonucci and Andre Sliva to help bring them back to the big time. Some tipped them for the title, but such talk was quickly silenced as they won just six of their first 14 games, putting the club on the brink of a fourth season in five without European football.
Next: Top 25 players in Champions League history
In November, with the club in seventh place and far adrift of the top four, the board fired manager Vincenzo Montella and replaced him with former midfielder Gennaro Gattuso, who started against Arsenal in the San Siro in 2008. Gattuso’s appointment was met with skepticism, but he’s steadied the ship impressively, dragging Milan to within eight points of the final Champions League spot.
With such little margin for error in the league, however, Europe provides another route back into the Champions League. Atletico Madrid, Borussia Dortmund, Arsenal and Lazio, currently fourth in Serie A, are the favorites, but given Milan’s form and their European heritage, they must be taken seriously as contenders.
Milan will be hoping this tie is the first step to putting an end to the rot that has infested the club, while Arsenal will view it as an opportunity to arrest their slide before they endure a Milan-like exile from the top table of the European game. Whichever side wins, however, will soon find it’s a long road back to the top.