Inter 1-0 Arsenal: Mikel Arteta’s side suffer second defeat in a row as the hosts survive second-half Gunners onslaught… with Hakan Calhanoglu’s penalty proving the difference in Milan

A fog had been enveloping Milan all week, causing some of the Arsenal contingent heading out here to divert to Bergamo, and leaving the team with the disconcerting experience of only knowing they had approached the runway at Malpensa airport when their wheels were down.

It was an encapsulation of how the club currently seem to be — struggling to find a way, a creative method, or meaningful victories, and now being asked to do so without the sporting director who has been an architect of the new Arsenal.

The message emanating from the club could not have been clearer in Italy these past few days — continuity and no crisis with Edu’s leaving — but there were easier tests of that conviction than a febrile, bouncing reception at one of the crucibles of European football. All things considered, it was a brutal test, and too much them.

Uniti, fieri, mai domi — ‘United, proud, never tamed’ proclaimed the banner laid out across the famous Curva Nord and though those who travelled in support of Mikel Arteta’s men would claim the same, the chants of ‘Arsenal’ struggled for resonance.

No one can say Arteta is not living and breathing every minute. After making a half-time change to a side who were behind and listing desperately, he became one of the few managers to concede a free-kick just beyond the hour mark, grabbing at a ball which Inter’s Matteo Darmian was trying to bring under control on the touchline. He anticipated a throw-in for his side but the ball was still in play. He was booked for the interference.

Inter’s hard-fought victory marks the Gunners’ second successive defeat in all competitions

Mikel Arteta’s side slipped to 13th in the Champions League table, out of 36 teams in total

He was powerless, though —watching his side attempt to make good on a poor first half and find the impregnable blue and black line of Simone Inzaghi’s Nerazzurri standing in their way.

The fog of uncertainty also envelops Arsenal’s midfield, struggling now to offer anything more than pragmatism and resolute defence in games. That was why the line ‘substitutes’ in last night’s team sheet which read ‘8 Martin Odegaard’ looked like a beacon of hope, after the 12-game absence of the club’s most creative player.

Declan Rice’s absence with a foot injury even deprived Mikel Arteta of those pinged diagonals which have become such an outlet for him and that left a unit that did not scream creativity in a ponderous first half. A brief pre-match reflection on the pitch for the victims of the Valencia floods had barely ceased than the Italians champions were at Arsenal, giving them hell.

The game was two minutes old when Denzel Dumfries snapped into a right-foot shot which thumped against the bar, and the Dutch wing-back continued to harry Jurrien Timber, attacking wide and looking to cross early.

Beneath the din of relentless Milanese chanting, Arteta’s men depended on some crucial interventions to avoid falling behind. Leandro Trossard tracked back from midfield to help deny Mehdi Taremi in the box. William Saliba prevented Lautaro Martinez spinning around him to build a break-away.

Those colossal twin pillars of the Arsenal defence, Saliba and Gabriel Magalhaes, without whom the side would have been so much the poorer this season, between them kept the team together in the face of all this.

As so often, Inter’s defenders and midfielders interchanged positions — which meant central midfielders like Hakan Calhanoglu dropping deep to start the build-up and giant full back Yann Bisseck posing a real danger in Arsenal’s box.

A flexible Italian side was also a very solid and defensively well structured one. Every time Gabriel Martinelli, Arsenal’s main supply line, lofted balls from the left, the defence was equal to them.

It was handball horror for Mikel Merino (left) who conceded a penalty on the stroke of half time

Hakan Calhanoglu coolly converted from the penalty spot to fire Inter ahead at the break

Gabriel came closest to scoring for the visitors, but his header was cleared off the goal line

And then, when Arsenal seemed to have made it through to the break intact, came the penalty which bought them a lead. There could be no complaints. Merino’s hand was raised and not in a natural position when Taremi levered his foot around the ball Calhanoglu lofted in from the left. Calhanoglu then stepped up to roll the ball through the middle of the goal, as David Raya leapt to his left.

The 4-4-2 starting line-up, with Kai Havertz and Trossard at the top, was a repeat of the formation that looked so leaden at Newcastle last Saturday and looked no more dangerous. A shot on which Bukayo Saka did not find full connection was all Arsenal had to show from that first half.

It had been hard to see where Arsenal’s openings were going to come from. By half-time Arteta had seen enough and he hooked Mikel Merino for Gabriel Jesus, bringing Havertz — supposedly the main goal threat — back into midfield.

Arsenal did up their game. Gabriel met a sharp corner Saka (left) arced from the right and Dumfries cleared off the line. Havertz curled a gorgeous shot towards the top corner of the net, only to see Yann Sommer palm it away. Yann Bisseck blocked to deny Havertz. Saka’s set-pieces were a constant threat.

There were faint cheers from the Arsenal contingent when Ethan Nwaneri, a creative jewel for sure, replaced Trossard 10 minutes from the end. Oleksandr Zinchenko also arrived to muster up a wide an attacking threat. But the Milanese chants gathered moment and there was to be no leveller to ease things for Arsenal ahead of Sunday’s trip to Stamford Bridge, which seems all the tougher now.

When Arsenal won 5-1 here in November 2003 — the last time they were in this place — they had Robert Pires and Edu in midfield and Thierry Henry up front. The road ahead seemed clear back then. No fog to obscure the way.