Mikel arteta wanted "fire" from his arsenal players but instead got a sluggish performance as the gunners did what was needed to reach the champions league semi-finals.
Kai havertz's goal from the first leg and the goalless draw with sporting at the emirates was enough for arsenal to take their place in the last four of the competition for a second successive season.
It is the first time in their history that arsenal have reached consecutive semi-finals in the champions league or european cup.
"i know the effort, the commitment that they put in," said arteta.
"there's a lot of work behind it. we've done something that has never been done in the history of our club in 140 years, so that tells you the difficulty of that."
But the gunners are not producing their best football when it matters. they have won just one of their past five matches in all competitions, scoring only three goals.
So does style count for anything, or is doing what's needed enough?