Arsenal are in the Champions League final. Bukayo Saka's 44th-minute goal, a rebound finish from four yards that will never trouble any compilation reel, was enough to beat Atletico Madrid 1-0 on the night and 2-1 on aggregate at a heaving Emirates Stadium. We will face the winners of Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain in Budapest on 30 May, 20 years and 24 days after the last time we reached this stage, 20 years and 24 days since Sol Campbell headed us in front against Barcelona in Saint-Denis and we believed, for 76 minutes, that the European Cup was coming to north London.

The cost was contained. No injuries of consequence beyond a knock for Myles Lewis-Skelly that forced his substitution on 74 minutes. No suspensions. The unresolved question is whether we can perform at a higher attacking level than this when the final arrives, because for long stretches on Tuesday night we looked capable of keeping anyone out and incapable of consistently threatening at the other end. The 30th clean sheet of the season across all competitions is a remarkable number. Whether it will be enough in Budapest depends on what we find in the final third over the next three and a half weeks.

Arteta's team selection was the first significant act of the evening. Rather than reverting to Martin Zubimendi and Piero Hincapie, who had started the first leg, Arteta kept faith with the lineup that dismantled Fulham 3-0 at the weekend. Myles Lewis-Skelly held the left-sided midfield role. Riccardo Calafiori started at left back. Eberechi Eze operated behind Viktor Gyokeres. The message was clear: this was a team picked to win the game, and the selection told Atletico as much before the first whistle.

The early pattern was familiar Simeone football, with Atletico sitting in a deep 4-4-2 block and inviting us to play in front of them. We had the ball. They had the structure. For the first 20 minutes, neither side registered a shot on target. The only genuine moment of alarm came on eight minutes when Giuliano Simeone swept wide from Julian Alvarez's cross on a fast break, and then again when Declan Rice produced a superb sliding tackle to deny Simeone after Raya had palmed a cross into the Atletico forward's path. Rice's intervention was the kind of action that rarely defines a match report but absolutely defines a tie. Without it, we were behind and the Emirates was tense for different reasons entirely.

Lewis-Skelly's low cross rolled across the six-yard box without finding a touch. Griezmann was fortunate to escape a penalty shout after bundling into Trossard in the area. We had territory and possession and nothing to show for either of them.

Then, on 44 minutes, William Saliba found Viktor Gyokeres with a through ball that split Atletico's defensive line. Gyokeres held off the challenge, kept the ball from the advancing Oblak, and cut it back for Leandro Trossard arriving at the back post. Trossard took his time, worked a half-yard of space in a crowded area, and drove a low left-footed shot towards goal. Oblak got his hand to it and pushed it out, but Saka had read the situation faster than anyone else on the pitch. He nipped in front of two Atletico defenders and prodded the rebound into the net from four yards.

It was not a beautiful goal. It did not need to be. Saka described it afterwards: "In those situations I just try and stay alive. Sometimes it bounces for you, sometimes it doesn't, but you have to be there, and I was there." He was there, and 20 years of waiting ended with a four-yard tap-in on the stroke of half-time.

Atletico were always going to come out with intent after the break, and they did. Within six minutes of the restart, a long ball caused Saliba to misjudge a header, and the ball fell backwards into the path of Giuliano Simeone. Simeone rounded Raya and looked certain to score. Gabriel, covering from the centre, made a last-ditch sliding challenge to nudge the ball out for a corner at the precise moment Simeone was shaping to shoot. It was the single most important defensive action of the match, and it came from a centre back who has made a career out of these moments.

Griezmann then forced Raya into a firm save at his near post on 56 minutes, a crisp drive that the goalkeeper had to deal with cleanly. Atletico had shifted their intensity. The deep block of the first half had been abandoned. They pressed higher, committed more bodies forward, and for a 15-minute period around the hour mark they looked like a side capable of dragging us into the kind of chaotic game that suits them more than it suits us.

Arteta responded on 58 minutes with a triple substitution of real conviction. Saka, Eze and Calafiori were replaced by Noni Madueke, Martin Odegaard and Piero Hincapie. Bringing off the goalscorer was a statement of squad depth and tactical control. Odegaard curled an effort over the bar almost immediately after his introduction, a reminder of what we had on the bench.

The moment that should have killed the tie arrived on 66 minutes. Hincapie delivered a fine cross from the left that found Gyokeres unmarked in the centre of the area. Gyokeres, who had been excellent in his hold-up play and movement all evening, steered his first-time finish over the crossbar. It was the kind of chance he would expect to convert, and on another night it would have settled the remaining 25 minutes into comfortable territory.

Simeone had already made his own triple change on 57 minutes, sending on Johnny Cardoso, Alexander Sorloth and Nahuel Molina. He replaced Alvarez and Griezmann with Thiago Almada and Alex Baena on 66 minutes. In doing so, he removed the two players most likely to produce a moment of individual quality, and the final 25 minutes felt like a contest between our structure and their willingness rather than between our quality and theirs.

Declan Rice was named Player of the Match, and no individual award has been more straightforwardly earned this season. He tackled. He intercepted. He passed with the kind of calm authority that made our midfield feel like a two-man operation where both men were doing the work of three. The tackle on Giuliano Simeone in the first half was the defensive highlight. The passing range throughout the second half, when Atletico pressed higher and space opened behind their midfield line, was the offensive one.

What mattered most, though, was the leadership. When Lewis-Skelly went off on 74 minutes and Zubimendi came on, Rice reorganised the midfield shape within two passes. When Atletico launched late balls into our box during five minutes of stoppage time, Rice was the voice directing traffic. Saka wore the armband in Odegaard's absence from the starting lineup, but Rice ran the operation.

If we are to win in Budapest, we will need Rice to produce a performance of this standard again. He is capable of it. He has done it consistently in European competition this season. The question is whether the rest of the side can match him in the final third, because the defensive platform he provides only works if we score.

We are in the Champions League final for the second time in our history, and the first time in 20 years. That is the fact that matters tonight, and the context around it only sharpens it. We have reached consecutive Champions League semi-finals for the first time. We have extended our unbeaten run in this season's competition to 14 matches, a new club record. We have equalled the 1970/71 side's record of 41 wins in a single season across all competitions. We have kept 30 clean sheets, the most in a single campaign since 1993/94.

Simeone acknowledged it with a graciousness that carried weight: "If we got knocked out, it is because our opponents deserved to get through."

The Premier League title race continues on Sunday at West Ham. The final in Budapest awaits on May 30. Four wins separate us from the most significant season in the club's modern history.