Troy Deeney sends warning to Arsenal over Atletico Madrid star with point to prove | Football

Troy Deeney says Ademola Lookman will be looking to prove a point when Arsenal lock horns with Atletico Madrid in this year’s Champions League semi-finals.

Arsenal secured their place in the last four thanks to an edgy two-legged victory over Sporting, with Kai Havertz’s late strike in Lisbon proving the difference after Wednesday’s contest ended goalless.

Sporting had opportunities to level the aggregate score at the Emirates, most notably through Geny Catamo and Maxi Araujo, before Leandro Trossard headed against the post late on in north London.

The result ensured the Gunners reached the successive semi-finals in Europe’s premier competition for the first time in their history, keeping the club’s hopes of a double alive in the process.

Mikel Arteta’s men will do battle with Atletico Madrid for a spot in this year’s final at Budapest’s Puskas Arena, where the winner will face off against either Bayern Munich or the holders Paris Saint-Germain.

Atleti defeated Barcelona 3-2 on aggregate to advance on Tuesday evening, with Ademola Lookman’s strike enough to send Diego Simeone’s side through after a pair of early goals from Lamine Yamal and Ferran Torres at a raucous Metropolitano Stadium.

Arsenal will head to Madrid for the first leg of what promises to be an intriguing semi-final on April 29. The two teams will resume their battle six days later at the Emirates on May 5.

‘I think both teams need it, it’s a huge moment for Simeone,’ ex-Watford striker Deeney said on CBS Sports when discussing the match-up.

‘Simeone spoke on Tuesday about how the club has evolved and they’ve allowed him to evolve, but I think when you’ve got a new stadium and the money that they’ve spent, you want to see more progression.

‘I think the pressure is equal [on both clubs], I think there’s going to be a lot of respect between them as well, both teams will appreciate what the otherguys have done defensively.’

Deeney is curious to see how Lookman performs across the two legs, with the winger perhaps looking to send a message to those fans who best remember his underwhelming spell in the Premier League with Everton.

‘It will be interesting for the likes of Lookman, what he can do in these moments,’ Deeney added.

‘Obviously when he was in the Premier League he had flashes but he’s kind of been considered a bit of a bust in the Premier League.

‘So I think this is a massive game for him to showcase [what he can do] against a top team in Arsenal.’

Deeney is anticipating a ‘weird’ semi-final tie between two ‘defensively solid’ teams who ‘don’t want the ball’.

He added: ‘I don’t think Arsenal have that killer instinct in them to go, “Right, I’m going to take the game on, I’m going to go and beat you by three, four, five”, they just play kind of percentage football, which is winning football by the way.

‘It’s, “We’re not going to take any risks, we’re not going to take any chances”, and I don’t know if that gets you to winning this. I don’t know.

‘You’re going to play against Atletico Madrid and both teams are going to do the same thing. Neither of them want the ball, both want to be defensively solid, both hit on the counter-attack, so it’s going to make for a weird game.’

In his post-match interview with CBS Sports, Declan Rice reassured fans that Arsenal’s squad have ‘massive motivation’ to be positive and beat Manchester City this weekend after last month’s Carabao Cup final defeat.

But Deeney is not convinced by the ‘messaging’ coming out of Arsenal’s camp after a series of uninspiring and unconvincing displays heading into Sunday’s potential title decider.

‘The messaging coming out of Arsenal… they’re bluffing it,’ he explained.

‘You’ve got the manager talking about being on fire, you’ve got Declan Rice now saying, “We want to win every game”… we’ve just watched two games against Sporting where you didn’t want to win those games, you tried not to lose.

‘The best part about it, which actually winds me up now, Arne Slot spoke earlier in the season about playing against a low block and got crucified by older players, Steven Gerrard coming out and saying that that’s what you always have to do against a top team.

‘Arteta has just spoken about how difficult it is to play against a low block… you [Arsenal] try and stop everybody every week! What are you talking about?!

‘Again, talking about the messaging and the delivery of the message, Declan Rice is obviously trying to put the captain’s hat on and say all the right messaging… unfortunately the camera caught your face at the end of the game.

‘That was a sigh of relief, that wasn’t a, “Yes, job done! Onto the next one” and then to take it back to Jeremy Doku’s interview after the game against Chelsea: “This weekend [against Arsenal] is a massive game, can’t wait for it!”, there’s a positivity.

‘Arsenal are going, “If we don’t lose then we’ll be alright”, and if you go into games with that mentality then I just think you’re under pressure and they’re bluffing it at the moment.’

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