The Warm-Up: This is the end, Arsene

This is how it ends, then. Not with a bang, but a whimper. Arsene Wenger’s projected dream departure at the Europa League final, back home in France, was an illusion all along. Twenty-two years in the job have come down to this: an evening of bitter disappointment and regret at the Wanda Metropolitano.

There is something special, something electric, about European semi-final nights. Just ask Liverpool. And yet Arsenal failed to rise to the occasion as they lost 1-0 to Atletico Madrid for a 2-1 defeat on aggregate. It was fitting, really. Wenger hasn’t managed to win a European trophy his whole career: lifting one at this stage would have been distinctly un-Wengerian, like becoming a convert to long-ball football, putting pizza on the menu at the training ground or buying a decent centre-back.

The one single team on the planet you would not want to face knowing you have to score a goal in 90 minutes is Atletico Madrid. They haven’t let a goal in for well over 1,000 minutes at home now and in a football landscape where defending appears to be a relic of a bygone era - 13 goals across two legs between Liverpool and Roma! - there is no better team than Diego Simeone’s at keeping a clean sheet. No more frustrating, suffocating opponent to take on.

Arsenal were by no means awful. They tried to conjure up a performance for Wenger. It’s just that a poorly organised team are going to struggle against the best drilled team in football. With Atleti stationing nine men behind the ball at times, as in the first leg, Arsenal couldn’t get anything to click in the final third. And, as in the first leg, they were undone by a single defensive lapse.

Hector Bellerin knew as soon as the shot from Diego Costa hit the back of the net that it was his fault for switching off and failing to spot the run in behind from Arsenal’s nemesis. A classic mistake of the late Wenger era. For a contrast you only had to look at Diego Godin’s monumental performance at the back for Atleti. The gulf in class was just too much for Arsenal to overcome. And now we are left with this: a tragic end to Wenger’s reign.

“I’m very, very sad to leave the club with this exit,” he said. “I will take some time to recover from that and then after I will see what I will do with myself in the future. I have no plans at the moment.”

There is no redemption to be had. Without the chance of winning the Europa League we can confirm that this is the worst state Arsenal have been in under Wenger. This is the end. And it's not a pleasant one.

It was a traumatic night for Arsenal, but especially for Laurent Koscielny. As soon as he collapsed off the ball, screaming in agony, you feared that his fragile Achilles may have totally given up on him and Wenger confirmed after the game that the medical staff do fear that he has ruptured his tendon.

You know it’s bad when a player starts beating the turf in agony. And unless a miracle occurs, Koscielny won’t be going to the World Cup.

“That depends on the scan,” Wenger said. “If he has a ruptured Achilles his chances are non-existent. We will know more after the scan. It doesn’t look very good. His Achilles is… You can always hope for a miracle in the scan that he will have but the first signs don’t look very good.”

There was drama aplenty in the night’s other semi-final as Marseille won 2-1 in extra-time to go through to the final at Red Bull Salzburg’s expense.

The Austrians were winning 2-0 on the night to force extra-time but with 119 minutes on the clock, a wrongly-awarded corner allowed Rolando to score for Marseille and book their place in the final in Lyon.

This is…. Spooky

No more heroes any more, at least not in Friday’s Warm-Up. We start with a withering assessment of Mesut Ozil by Martin Keown. Fine, criticise his performance. That would be more than justified. But this overstepped the line:

Sorry for the naughty words but where to even start with this?

Firstly, with the recognition that if there is one criticism you can’t level against Granit Xhaka, it’s that he always gives the ball away. Just stupid on multiple levels.

There’s a bit of Friday night football for you to enjoy as Brighton host Manchester United at 8pm. A home win would be enough for Chris Hughton’s side to essentially secure promotion. Don’t rule it out.