Simeone and Wenger go head to head in a battle of the old-timers

Arsenal's Europa League semi-final against Atletico Madrid tomorrow will be a clash of styles as stark as they come but Arsene Wenger and Diego Simeone are anything but polar opposites.

Arsenal will flood forward at Emirates Stadium while Atletico will sit back; Arsenal will dominate possession, Atletico will counter; Arsenal will risk leaving gaps and Atletico will do everything they can to close them.

"We have a style that does not vary much," Simeone said last month. "We usually play one way, with the same idea." Wenger may share little common ground with Simeone on how best to win matches but there is no coach in the game that knows better the sense of identity and attachment to a club, which the Frenchman is now in the process of curtailing.

"I'm staying because this club has a future and that future is us," Simeone said at the end of last season, before extending his contract to 2020 in September.

If he sees it through, he will have been in charge at Atleti for almost nine years, still 13 short of Wenger?s 22 but far closer in terms of status, impact and legacy.

His standing is enhanced by two stints and five years playing for Los Rojiblancos, the first spell yielding a league and cup double in 1996, when Simeone was the captain. When they next won the Copa del Rey in 2013 and La Liga in 2014, Simeone was the coach.

The cult of Simeone at Atletico is also powerful because it is unusual. In December 2011, he was their 12th appointment in 10 years and fifth in the last two. Like Wenger, he has brought stability, but in a club where previously there was none.

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When chief executive Miguel Angel Gil paid a rare visit to the club's training ground earlier this month, his message was clear. "Qualify for the Champions League," Simeone said. "He has been telling me that for five years."