Arsenal’s season has passed a turning point — and the best could still be to come | OneFootball

Minimum fuss in the end, as Arsenal still go for the maximum. It could genuinely be a unique season, as they also may end up the only English club left in the Champions League.

For now, an already good week got even better, as this 2-0 win over Bayer Leverkusen didn’t just put them into the Champions League quarter-final; it puts them in a good place ahead of Sunday’s Carabao Cup final, which may yet be the first of four trophies this season.

Winning the actual quadruple is of course still a fantasy - the sheer number of games tend to catch up with you - but every match right now is making the vision that bit more real.

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Arsenal’s win over Leverkusen was lit up by Eze’s strike (Bradley Collyer/PA Wire)

Perhaps the most important thing about this last-16 second leg, though, was that it was also Arsenal’s best attacking performance in some time - maybe weeks, maybe since the second half of the 4-1 over Aston Villa.

It also featured what could be the club’s goal of the season: a perfect strike from Eberechi Eze. He may be finally coming into his own, which could be crucial to Arsenal doing the same.

They were far from fully free-flowing, and there were extended spells when an encouraging Leverkusen team put it up to them, but they were back to penning an opposition side in; to moving the ball around at an increasingly disorienting pace.

That was most true of the period before Eze’s goal, which went some way to deciding the tie.

That itself may well have been shaped by Saturday against Everton.

Max Dowman didn’t get to follow that up by coming on here, but his influence was arguably all over this game.

That substitution may yet come to be seen as a before and after in the season. The mood tonight was that different from the majority of Saturday night.

Before it, or really the Dowman cross that brought that 87th-minute Viktor Gyokeres goal, this very stadium had been surrounded by the worst angst yet.

It had looked like the same old story, and certainly the same old frustrated draw at home to of course extinguish any excitement that it might actually happen this season. Worse was what the team were doing, devoid of ideas.

Unwilling to go long due to Everton’s muscularity, David Raya was playing the ball around his backline when they badly needed a goal.

Then, Dowman happened.

A youthful vigour flowed around the stadium again.

You could see it here, even with the 16-year-old on the bench.

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Arsenal will go into Sunday’s Carabao Cup final on a high after overcoming angst (Action Images via Reuters)

There certainly wasn’t the same trepidation that we’ve seen in so many games, despite this awkward fixture representing a real chance of an upset. Leverkusen had given Arsenal a tough game in that 1-1 first leg. There was even a certain momentum to the round, given the number of English reverses.

Arsenal at least stopped that rot, by starting to properly play against Leverkusen.

The heroics of opposition goalkeeper Janis Blavich may even have helped, forcing them to lift it more.

Eze certainly did that.

It long felt like it was going to take something special to beat Blavich. He’d got a feel for it - literally - when brilliantly palming away an early Leandro Trossard effort, before then bettering that with a close-range stop from the same player.

That really should have been 1-0 as the Belgian turned in the box to finish, only for Blavich to clip the ball away. It was a supreme save.

Arsenal’s domination had been more concerted here, though. Gabriel twice headed narrowly over from set-pieces.

You could feel that momentum growing, but also a certain frustration. It wasn’t like against Everton or in the Premier League but it was something else. The longer Leverkusen went without conceding, the more the game felt like it could see a sting.

Just as that began to creep in, though, Eze let it all out.

On the 35th minute, a nice Trossard touch teed the playmaker up at the edge of the box. Eze flicked it up so fluidly, then drove the fiercest and finest strike right into the top corner.

Is it actually a volley given it bounced up first? Does it matter?

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Eze's thunderous volley could be Arsenal's goal of the season (Arsenal FC via Getty Images)

It was a pleasure to watch.

After that, the contest wasn’t the same, as it felt like a procession until Arsenal’s eventual victory. Leverkusen did have a good spell but just couldn’t get beyond that back line. David Raya, who should be a shout for player of the season, did offer one brilliant save from Christian Michel Kofane.

Arsenal keep going, unlike most of the Premier League. It may end up the story of the whole season.