Mikel Arteta may have breathed a sigh of relief following Arsenal\u2019s gritty 1-0 victory over Sporting Lisbon in the Champions League quarter-final first leg, but the critics remain unconvinced. The sobering assessment was delivered by former Chelsea midfielder and ESPN pundit Craig Burley.<\/p>\n While acknowledging that Arsenal are now overwhelming favorites to reach the semi-finals, where they would face either Barcelona or Atl\u00e9tico Madrid, Burley stressed that navigating the \u201ckinder\u201d side of the draw is masking fundamental shortcomings.<\/p>\n \u2018In terms of the result you obviously take it,\u2019<\/em> Burley said on ESPN<\/a>as reported by Metro<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2018Sporting are one of the weakest teams left if not the weakest team but Arsenal haven\u2019t been great, we know that.<\/em><\/p>\n \u2018I imagine they\u2019re home and dry after that result barring a disaster at home. No matter who the opposition is, Champions League quarter-finals, you get a 1-0 lead to take back home next week \u2013 you\u2019re taking that.<\/em><\/p>\n \u2018They\u2019re going to have to up their game though, if they go through against Sporting, which they should, and get to the semi-finals, if they don\u2019t up their game\u2026 I mean, did you see the other game tonight, Real Madrid vs Bayern?<\/em><\/p>\n \u2018At the moment Arsenal, whilst they have everybody talking about the depth of their squad and that they\u2019re probably going to win the Premier League, they need to play better.<\/em><\/p>\n \u2018That level that Bayern and Real Madrid got to today \u2013 and we know they can both get better \u2013 I don\u2019t think Arsenal\u2026 they\u2019ve really got to flick that switch again to get to that level.<\/em><\/p>\n \u2018Is anybody surprised that Arsenal are winning 1-0 away at one of the weakest teams left? That\u2019s all I\u2019m saying.<\/em><\/p>\n \u2018Bigger picture, they have to find the extra gears that they had at the beginning of the season, or they\u2019re not going to win this competition. I\u2019m not being negative, that\u2019s just how it is.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n \t\t\t
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Burley\u2019s critique carries heavy weight when factoring in Arsenal\u2019s recent domestic wobble.<\/p>\n Prior to the hard-fought win in Portugal, the North Londoners suffered agonizing back-to-back defeats, a comprehensive 2-0 loss to Manchester City in the Carabao Cup final, followed by a shocking FA Cup quarter-final exit at the hands of Championship side Southampton.<\/p>\n Those stumbles temporarily punctured Arsenal\u2019s aura of invincibility, raising familiar questions about their mental fortitude during the high-stakes spring run-in.<\/p>\n Arteta himself admitted his side had \u201ca point to prove\u201d against Sporting, praising his team\u2019s resilience to win ugly against a side that had been unbeaten in 23 league matches.<\/p>\n However, scraping past a stubborn defensive block in Lisbon is a vastly different challenge than going toe-to-toe with the likes of Bayern Munich and Real Madrid.<\/p>\n Bigger tests will come for Arsenal and Arteta in the coming weeks but so far, they are unbeaten in the Champions League this season and they are the only team that boast such a record.<\/p>\n Arsenal result has just handed Liverpool and Chelsea a massive UCL boost <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n \t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Mikel Arteta may have breathed a sigh of relief following Arsenal\u2019s gritty 1-0 victory over<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1223,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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Despite getting back to winning ways thanks to a stoppage-time strike from Kai Havertz and crucial saves from goalkeeper David Raya, the Gunners have been issued a stark warning: they are simply not operating at the same elite level as European juggernauts Bayern Munich and Real Madrid.<\/p>\nArsenal have been warned despite winning vs Sporting<\/h2>\n
![\"Liverpool](\"https:\/\/icdn.caughtoffside.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image_2026-04-09_024535081-190x127.jpg.webp)
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<\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n![\"Virgil](\"https:\/\/icdn.caughtoffside.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image_2026-04-09_015922706-190x127.jpg.webp)
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\n<\/section>\nIs criticism from Burley justified on Mikel Arteta\u2019s team?<\/h2>\n