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Can Arsenal still salvage something from this season with Champions League success?
Arsenal’s Premier League hopes are over following a disastrous week that’s seen us drop five more crucial points and fall 13 points adrift of leaders Liverpool. Also out of both domestic cup competitions, can Arsenal still salvage something from this season by winning the Champions League? Let’s take a closer look….
Title hopes end
Having edged past Leicester City 2-0 at the King Power Stadium on the 15th February, Arsenal headed into a crucial period in the title race just eight points behind Liverpool. With the Merseysiders facing two extremely tough games against Man City and Newcastle, Arsenal hoped to close the gap with wins over West Ham and Nottingham Forest.
However, a disastrous performance against the Hammers saw Arsenal slump to a shock 1-0 defeat at the Emirates Stadium last weekend. To compound matters, Liverpool then beat Man City at the Etihad Stadium to open up an 11 point gap. Still holding a game in hand over their rivals, Arsenal fans still held faint hope of catching Arne Slot’s men, but we knew victory was needed at the City Ground on Wednesday night.
The Gunners certainly put-in a much-improved performance compared to the display against West Ham. We totally dominated a Forest team – who rightly sit third in the table – on their own patch and were by far the better team. Unfortunately, the lack of firepower was evident once again and a toothless Arsenal couldn’t find the breakthrough so we had to settle for a 0-0 draw.
A rampant Liverpool dispatched of Newcastle – without key man Alexander Isak – 2-0 at Anfield to widen the gap to 13 points. Even the most optimistic Arsenal fan knows the title dream is now over for another season. Not only do we have some tough games to come against the likes of Man Utd, Chelsea, Liverpool and Newcastle, but our injury problems in attack have left us impotent up front. We would need to win all of our remaining 11 games to stand a chance of beating Liverpool to the title, which would be a difficult task with a fully fit squad, but with our four main attackers all on the sidelines with serious injuries, it’s impossible to think Arsenal can take 33 points from our remaining games.
Champions League salvation?
Our only remaining hope of success this season is the Champions League. Arsenal cruised into the last-16 after finishing third in the table behind Liverpool and Barcelona. We have saved some of our best performances of the season for Europe, and many fans always thought this team could go far in the CL, so it’s no surprise Arsenal’s Champions League tickets have sold out for every game.
We’ll face familiar opposition in the last-16 after being drawn to face PSV Eindhoven once again. It’s a decent draw and Arsenal should be favourites to go through over the two legs. However, our injury problems in attack won’t be solved in time to face the Dutch giants, making the tie far more problematic.
Arsenal are finding it extremely difficult to score goals right now – which is understandable given Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli, Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus are all out injured. A front three of Leandro Trossard, make-shift striker Mikel Merino and 17-year-old Ethan Nwaneri just doesn’t pose enough threat, and with Martin Odegaard badly out of form, Arsenal are struggling to create clear cut chances.
It’s going to be a tough slog against PSV over the two legs but hopefully Arsenal can do enough to progress to the next stage. Our defence is still rock solid so hopefully we can keep things tight at the back and manage to score a couple of goals at the other end, with the team still a threat from set pieces.
Tough route to final
If we manage to get past PSV, the competition then gets really tough as we’ll face either Real Madrid or Atletico Madrid in the quarter finals. Madrid are the favourites to beat their city rivals and are a formidable force in Europe, so it’s an understatement to say it will be difficult to beat them over two legs.
If we can pull off that miracle, the chances are we’ll face either Liverpool or Paris Saint-Germain in the semi-finals as either of those two clubs should beat Aston Villa or Brugge to the last four spot. We beat PSG comfortably 2-0 in the league phase but they are much improved since that meeting and it would be a tough tie against the French giants. Obviously Liverpool would also be extremely difficult, and playing away at Anfield in a Champions League semi-final would be one of the most daunting tasks in football.
If, somehow, Arsenal navigated their way to the final, we could face the likes of Barcelona, Bayern Munich or Inter Milan from the other side of the draw. So if we are to win the Champions League this season, we’re going to have to do it the hard way by beating the very best Europe has to offer. With so many hard games on the horizon, even the most optimistic of Arsenal’s fans won’t be rushing out to buy their UEFA Champions League final tickets anytime soon.
Hope?
The good news is that if Arsenal can get past PSV, we should have two of our key attackers back for the quarter finals onwards. Saka and Martinelli are both close to making their returns to action, with Arteta suggesting they will be available after the upcoming March international break.
That means they will be back in the squad at the start of April and available for selection by the time the Champions League quarter finals kick off on the 8th April. With Saka and Martinelli back, our attack will be far more dangerous and Arsenal won’t be as toothless as we’re seeing right now.
Unfortunately, Havertz and Jesus have been ruled out for the rest of the season, so Arsenal still won’t have a recognised striker for our remaining games. That will obviously still hamper our chances of going deep in the Champions League but the return of Saka and Martinelli can still give us hope of pulling off a miracle in Europe.
But first we need to focus on PSV and getting past that tricky last-16 tie before we can even dream of playing one of the Madrid giants in the quarter-finals. Let’s hope Arteta manages to lift the spirit of the players for next week’s first leg as it will be tough at the Philips Stadion and we can’t let our season be over before the end of March.
