As Arsenal touched down in Bilbao to kick start their Champions League campaign, it was a very familiar feeling for Mikel Arteta.
That is the route the Arsenal manager takes when he returns to his homeland to visit his family in nearby San Sebastian, just an hour’s drive away from the airport in Bilbao.
Many of Arteta’s family will be in attendance at San Mames. There is local feeling on the line as Athletic Bilbao are local rivals to Real Sociedad – Arteta spent one season there as a player and Martin Zubimendi, Mikel Merino and Martin Odegaard were all beloved talents before finding their way to Arsenal.
But ultimately, Arteta is so driven by the quest to take his club closer to the promised land in the Champions League that sentiment is secondary to the desire to win.
Arsenal are, arguably, the grandest club to have never yet won Europe’s major club honour. There is friction between the pressure to get there and the reality of being one of several teams with big intentions to claim the Champions League this season.
“Big clubs try seven, eight, nine times and they win two,” Arteta mused. “So in this competition, you fail much more than you succeed. That is the nature of it. That’s the history of our club and that’s what we want to change.”
“It tells you with our long history how difficult it is because we haven’t won it yet and that’s the opportunity. That’s how I see it.
“The pressure is the opportunity that drives that energy, that willingness to be better every single day. We all know that it’s going to be a really long journey.
“The margins in this competition are super small and you have to be at your very best to give yourself the best possible chance.”
Ben White has missed Arsenal’s last three games due to injury.
Arsenal were semi-finalists last season, and Arteta has endeavoured to take as much learning as possible from the run his team had.
It gave Arteta food for thought and some important messages to take into this season: “That we are good enough, that we can compete against any opposition on the day.
“And on top of that, that things have to go your way. You need to have a full squad available when it comes to the most critical moments in the season.”
“Last season we were training and we had eight or nine key players and were going out with 13 players and at that level it is extremely difficult. But I think even with that condition, we did really, really well.”
That in part informed the aggressive haul in the transfer market to strengthen resources to try to avoid being stretched come the killer games at the end of the campaign.
Arsenal will kick off this European adventure carrying injuries, with Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard, and Ben White left at home along with the more established recoveries in Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus who both underwent surgery.
Captain Odegaard, who in the first half of Saturday’s victory against Nottingham Forest appeared to aggravate a shoulder injury he suffered against Leeds United last month, missing out is a big blow.
However, that should not prevent Arteta from fielding a strong, experienced and hungry line-up in Bilbao. In a stadium renowned for its impassioned fervour, those qualities will be welcome.
(Top photo: Angel Martinez/Getty Images)