The great Liverpool teams of the 1980s shared a motivational quote that was trotted out every time they won a trophy, especially on the rare occasions when they didn’t: “First is first, and second is nowhere.”
Mikel Arteta might want to pin it to the wall of the Arsenal changing room to ensure his side avoids being known as football’s “Nearly Team.”
When the Gunners face Paris Saint-Germain in the first leg of their Champions League semifinal at the Emirates on Tuesday, the tantalizing prospect of glory in the competition will be one side of the coin — the other will be the demoralizing reality that Arsenal have developed a habit of falling short just when they need to step up.
So where will their Champions League journey reach its conclusion this season: First or nowhere?
It is an easy line for winners to claim as their mantra. Liverpool won seven league titles, four League Cups, two FA Cups and a European Cup (now known as the Champions League) during the 1980s, with the arrogance of success allowing them to be brutal about the emptiness of their near misses. But going close is generally part of the development process in sport, and Liverpool learned that lesson during the early years of Jürgen Klopp’s nine-year period as manager.
The club finished as the runner-up in the Europa League, Champions League, Premier League and League Cup before finally lifting a trophy by winning the 2019 Champions League final against Tottenham Hotspur in Madrid. That success triggered a flood of silverware at Anfield, with the Premier League, EFL Cup and FA Cup each being won at least once by Klopp before he stepped down as manager last summer.
Arsenal are still waiting for their breakthrough moment under Arteta. The 2019-20 FA Cup success, when Arsenal beat Chelsea in the final during the COVID-19 pandemic, does at least give Arteta a major trophy on his list of achievements, but the only member of the starting team that day who is still at the club is full-back Kieran Tierney, a player who will leave as a free agent after drifting out of the first-team picture in recent seasons.
A then-18-year-old Bukayo Saka, an unused substitute at Wembley against Chelsea, is the only survivor of that cup win who is part of Arteta’s new team, so the whole Gunners squad is still waiting to experience success with the club.
Nobody can question Arsenal’s transition from pretenders to challengers under Arteta. They are now contenders in every major competition and are on course to record a third successive runners-up finish in the Premier League this season. However, a failure to mount a serious challenge for the title this season has only added to the narrative. The Gunners have drawn seven Premier League games in 2025, as many as Liverpool have all season.
The 5-1 aggregate win against Real Madrid in the Champions League quarterfinals was a significant statement of intent, but Arteta’s team must now back it up and win something.
“The dream is to win, to win the big trophies, and that’s where we are,” Arteta told AS earlier this month. “We’ve turned it around, and now it’s time to win.
“The reality is we’ve made so many steps that it’s time to win. In the end, judgment is normal, because this is Arsenal; otherwise, we wouldn’t be Arsenal. People have to judge whether we win or not. If you’re close, it’ll be your turn at the end.”
For all of the team’s progress under Arteta, since Arsene Wenger’s “Invincibles” made history in 2003-04 by winning the Premier League without suffering a single defeat, Arsenal have won just four trophies: four FA Cups. During the same period, Manchester City (19), Chelsea (18), Manchester United (15) and Liverpool (10) have all left Arsenal firmly in the shade with their trophy wins.
Since winning the FA Cup under Arteta, Arsenal have reached two semifinals — in the Europa League and League Cup — and lost both, to Villarreal and Newcastle United, respectively. Arsenal were favorites to progress on both occasions but were eliminated. They also surrendered leading positions in the Premier League title races of 2022-23 and 2023-24, so ending their trophy drought will involve more than simply winning on the pitch.
If they are to win a trophy, Arsenal need to overcome the psychological hurdle of delivering when the pressure and the expectancy are at their most intense. Liverpool did that under Klopp, and Sir Alex Ferguson’s dominant United teams in the 1990s also had to overcome the pain of failure before going on to achieve incredible success.
Yet Mauricio Pochettino’s Tottenham team of Harry Kane, Dele Alli, Christian Eriksen and Son Heung-Min failed to progress from challengers to winners after going close in the Premier League and Champions League. Arsenal have yet to show whether they will follow the Liverpool path or stumble like Spurs.
A team including players as talented as Saka, Declan Rice, William Saliba and Martin Ødegaard seems certain to collect silverware at some point, but until they do, the Liverpool maxim will hold true. First is first, and second is nowhere.
