Mikel Arteta inherited a team in the wrong half of the Premier League. A year later, they were 15th. As Arsenal are in their first Champions League semi-final for 16 years, their manager can testify that the path forward can be long and winding and sometimes seem to involve going backwards.
Eliminating Real Madrid seemed a giant step forward, especially given the emphatic nature of home and away triumphs, of Declan Rice’s twin man-of-the-match performances, of how, one William Saliba error apart, Arsenal shut out European football’s resident superpower.
