In Spain they call it “bajar” - the feeling of being in control of a situation until suddenly, rapidly, you’re not. As Mikel Arteta once famously described, it was a sensation he only experienced once as a player and it happened at Anfield.
“I could only see red shirts flying around,” he explained in the Arsenal: All or Nothing documentary. “The game is passing all over me, I cannot react, emotionally, physically I cannot cope, everything goes too fast.” Arteta implied that, on a special night, Anfield and its atmosphere has an ability to make even the strongest opposition feel powerless, that even if you think you’re ready, “bajar” can just happen to you.
