If only Arsenal could unlock the bewildering and elusive secret to away games. Having given themselves an encouraging leg up with another confident win here inspired by the gargantuan midfield efforts of Aaron Ramsey and Lucas Torreira, attention now switches to Naples and a tantalising if daunting mission to see this enthralling quarter-final through.
The burning question jangling around everybody’s head at the end of this was simple: is 2-0 enough? Can Arsenal find the composure and resilience to go into hostile territory with their vulnerable away record and withstand the pressures that await? Unai Emery was candid and still views the tie at 50/50, while Carlo Ancelotti talked up the prospects of a second leg with what he hopes will pack a very different punch.
No rocket science was required to figure out how Arsenal needed to make some form of statement here to give themselves a platform to take out to Stadio San Paolo. Perhaps the player who felt that the most, and he certainly performed with the will to take on that responsibility, was Ramsey. Emery described him afterwards as “awesome”.
He grasped the game early on, set the tone and cast his imprint. The Welshman has been in inspirational form lately, arguably his best and most consistently mature period of his Arsenal career, and he opened the scoring from a move he instigated and finished with aplomb. Having intercepted, he helped along a fluid passing move that travelled via Mesut Özil, Alexandre Lacazette and Ainsley Maitland-Niles, before arriving with trademark timing to calmly plant his shot into the corner of the net.
Every such intervention from Ramsey feels bittersweet as the midfielder, who joined the club as a teenager, will leave for Juventus in the summer. He is certainly trying his utmost to leave behind plenty of memories and fly off to Italy leaving a farewell prize.
Emery is usually reluctant to talk about individuals but he put that reserve to one side such is his admiration for the way Ramsey is leading the team in a situation where others might feel halfway out the door.
“He wants to help us to do something important. He feels a lot for the club. He gives us more than he can to do the best performance, thinking in the collective. I want to enjoy with him this moment and do something important with him. His focus now is very big for Arsenal.”
The midfield blend of Ramsey with Torreira, who chopped at tackles and drove box to box, with Özil finessing the match with touches of class, was central to Arsenal’s first-half tempo. Ancelotti said his team “suffered” in that period as the home side took a two-goal lead and could have extended it before half-time.
The cushion came as Torreira pounced on Fabián Ruiz in the heart of midfield and broke with intent. Fortune favoured him as he took a pot shot, which ricocheted off Kalidou Koulibaly and looped in for an own goal.
Ancelotti’s half-time words at least engineered a reaction. Napoli emerged from the dressing room with cranked up determination, a higher press and more direct long passes over the top. Lorenzo Insigne led the charge to make an impact and Arsenal’s defence were increasingly on the alert.
That risk of an away goal, a momentary lapse of reason, lingered and that complex balancing act came into play – could they hold firm while also springing forward to search for more goals?
In fairness Arsenal could have struck a third – Alex Meret repelled a string of shots and Ramsey lifted a golden chance over the crossbar 10 minutes from the end – but Napoli squandered two clear sights of an away goal from Insigne and Piotr Zielinski.
Overall Emery described himself as 50% happy. “The result is fair. They are going to push. They have one step more in their stadium. Our objective is to try to be as competitive as this away. Sometimes away we are more losing the spirit we have at home. This is our challenge to find success in this season.”
Four Arsenal players collapsed with cramp at the final whistle, an indication of how much effort they put into the match, but also a symbol of hope for Ancelotti, who identified that as a sign they might not have the legs, never mind hearts, to see the job through next week.
“We lost the game in the first 20 minutes when we were overwhelmed by the pressure of Arsenal. But we shouldn’t over-dramatise this result. We knew this would be difficult. Now we are going to play in front of our own supporters and I am sure the result will be very different,” he said.
Two-nil, and delicately poised, it remains.