Saka sets up seismic week for Arsenal. Plus: What to make of Fox’s World Cup advert

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Hello! Immortality beckons Mikel Arteta. The biggest month in Arsenal’s history lies ahead.

Coming up:

Arsenal reach UCL final

Mbappe friction at Madrid

Fox’s ambitious Pulisic ad

Stunning Tanzanian goal

Saka seals it as Arsenal reach first Champions League final since 2006

Injuries in springtime are liable to wreck a club’s season, but a month without Bukayo Saka might have tipped the balance in the opposite direction. One goal from him against Fulham on Saturday, another against Atletico Madrid last night and as a result of those interventions, Arsenal are on for the most seismic week they have ever seen.

Saka wasn’t alone in dragging Arsenal into the Champions League final yesterday — the aggressive press employed as Atletico chased an equaliser was a tactical lock the Spaniards couldn’t unpick — but the England international returning fresh from an Achilles problem has been the classic shot in the arm. There was bound to be next to nothing between the teams, and he forced the issue, poaching a tap-in (above) to see Arsenal through 2-1 on aggregate.

It’s their first Champions League final in 20 years and, all things considered, entirely deserved. Atletico will rue the little period in Madrid last week when they had enough chances to steal a march on Arsenal, but over the two legs, Mikel Arteta outmaneuvered Diego Simeone. The tie’s aesthetic appeal was low — wasn’t it always likely to be? — but there was something undeniably brave about Arsenal pinning in Atletico at the Emirates Stadium, protecting their lead with a very high line. Viktor Gyokeres invoked beast mode up front.

Come May 24, Arsenal could be lifting the Premier League title (assuming it doesn’t happen before then). On May 30, they’ll have the chance to win a first European Cup in Hungary, the second half of a dream double. So much has been said and written about Arteta — his philosophy, his chronic lack of trophies — but he’s in a position to rewrite all of that narrative. No manager at Arsenal has ever done what he is on the verge of doing.

Goodbye Griezmann

Griezmann never won the Champions League with Atletico (Photo: Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)

As the second leg raged, Simeone looked like he was going to spontaneously combust (he and Arsenal’s sporting director, Andrea Berta, ended up in each other’s faces on the touchline just before the final whistle). He was powerless to change the flow of the contest, and removing Julian Alvarez and Antoine Griezmann just after the hour was a slightly odd gamble.

Key moments went against them too — a Gabriel challenge on Simeone’s son, Giuliano, which might have been a penalty, Riccardo Calafiori getting away with bringing down Griezmann because the referee had already blown for a dubious foul on Gabriel — but truth be told, both legs were a VAR tombola in which countless contentious decisions could have gone either way. Atletico will take their medicine and reflect that they weren’t good enough.

This is just about goodbye to Griezmann. A handful more games in La Liga and he’ll head off to join Orlando City in MLS this summer, a decade of outstanding service in Madrid behind him. As for Simeone, that Champions League title he desperately wants to gift Atletico just won’t fall for him. He’s the ‘almost’ man in Europe. But almost isn’t it.

News round-up

The making of Michael: How Olise went from trial at Reading to Bayern brilliance

(Getty Images/Daniel Coker; design: Eamonn Dalton)

The Champions League final promises to be a phenomenal clash of styles. It’s the second leg of Bayern Munich vs Paris Saint-Germain this evening, and there’s simply no comparison between their respective approaches to football and that of Arteta at Arsenal.

That Bayern are still in their semi-final, having trailed 5-2 at one stage in Paris, is a bit of a miracle, but with home advantage in Munich, this is when the three-pronged attack of Harry Kane, Luis Diaz and Michael Olise can come into its own. PSG’s one-goal lead won’t feel like any protection at all.

Watching the first leg, it struck me again just how exquisite Olise’s ball control and movement are. In this profile of him this morning, written by Stuart James and Tom Burrows, one of the midfielder’s old coaches likens him to an ice skater, which is about the best parallel I can think of. Everything about him screams of a boy who was born to play the game.

And yet, Olise’s career path in his younger years was tricky. His application at Chelsea and his willingness to train properly were patchy to say the least, and they ended up releasing him. He found himself scratching around for a trial at Reading — now a middling club in League One — before everything clicked. Olise is proof that genius can be challenging to coach (isn’t Mbappe at Madrid evidence of that?), but get it right, and the pay-offs are worth it.

Tonight: UEFA Champions League semi-final second leg: Bayern (4) vs PSG (5), 3pm/8pm — CBS, Paramount+, Fubo, DAZN, ViX/TNT Sports.

Impossible dream: What to make of Fox advert where USMNT win World Cup

Fox Sports — that famously understated broadcaster — has gone the whole hog in the latest advert publicising its World Cup coverage. It shows Christian Pulisic winning the tournament for the USMNT by scoring direct from a corner in the 96th minute. Street parades ensue, and shops run out of beer.

The USMNT, bear in mind, have never been beyond the quarter-finals of a World Cup. They’re 80-1 shots or thereabouts this summer, so tipping them to make the last four would be a bold shout, even if head coach Mauricio Pochettino is doing that thing of pretending anything is possible.

So here’s my question: is Fox being tongue-in-cheek and having a bit of a laugh? Or is it actively conditioning people in the States to think the USMNT have a chance? Because while close followers of Pochettino’s squad know how the land lies — the last eight seems like a fair target to set — casual fans or those new to the sport might be duped into thinking Pulisic and co are primed for glory.

Which, I know, is the way advertising sells: by hooking people in. Perhaps I’m overthinking this and ought to lighten up. But if the past few years have taught us anything, it’s the need for the USMNT to go step by step; to patiently overdeliver, rather than brashly overpromise. Fulfillment lies in one direction, and disappointment in the other.

Around TAFC

And finally…

TAFC likes to track Puskas Award contenders and blimey, have we got one for you today. It comes from Zambian midfielder Clatous Chama, who scored for Tanzanian Premier League side Simba SC in a derby against Young Africans at the weekend. The dinked assist is inspired. The finish is completely outrageous. You’ll be watching it all day.