Arteta told Arsenal to 'make it happen' they delivered -

If the magic moments”, as Mikel Arteta put it, didn’t make it clear, two images revealed the scale of Arsenal’s 3-0 victory over Real Madrid in the Champions League quarter-finals.

- MIGUEL DELANEY

One was the scene in the dressing room, where staff congratulating the players could barely be heard over the noise. It was raucous.

When Declan Rice came in with his man-of-the-match award, he was laughing about how Nicolas Jover told him to cross his first free kick. A few yards away, Carlo Ancelotti could barely be heard for very different reasons. The Real Madrid manager’s voice was unusually low for his post-match press conference, which didn’t last long. Ancelotti has rarely been so subdued.

That was ultimately because of another message relayed by Arteta, that was heard loud and clear. It was to “make it happen”. The Arsenal manager repeated those words three times after the game, and he’d said them a lot beforehand.

They got through. Arsenal displayed all of the conviction that Arteta has sought to instil into this team over five years. There are times when the Basque can sound absurd as he talks about positivity even after dismal setbacks, but results like this are the point. This is why he didn’t sign a forward who he didn’t think had the right personality for the squad. It is about conditioning performances like this, where all doubt and hesitation are gone. Everyone is of a singular mindset.

Arteta was proud of what that represented, especially as regards his will to “continue to make steps”. His team have taken a leap forwards.

In the build-up to last year’s quarter-final against Bayern Munich, the staff could sense a “nervous tension” within the squad. It was the first time the club had been involved in a game of that magnitude for seven years. The feeling was that they weren’t quite psychologically ready. There was too much of a hang-up about “the Bayern badge”, and the name. They lost that tie much more meekly than they should have.