There was a version of Tuesday evening at the Emirates Stadium, kick-off at 8:00 PM, that could have turned nervous and difficult, with Leverkusen arriving tied at 1-1 from the first leg, organised under Kasper Hjulmand, and entirely capable of sitting deep and catching Arsenal on the counter.
That version of the night never materialised, and what the 60,000 inside the stadium witnessed instead was one of the cleanest home European performances of Mikel Arteta’s entire reign, a 2-0 win that confirmed a 3-1 aggregate victory and sent Arsenal into the Champions League quarter-finals for the third consecutive year.
Eberechi Eze, making only his seventh Champions League appearance, opened the scoring in the 35th minute with a thunderbolt from 20 yards that flew past Janis Blaswich into the bottom corner, a finish that silenced any lingering anxiety in the stands and confirmed that whoever starts alongside Viktor Gyokeres in this Arsenal attack is capable of delivering moments of genuine quality.
Declan Rice added the second goal in the 62nd minute with an effort equally impressive in its execution, latching onto a loose ball in the centre of the park, carrying it forward with purpose and then curling a precise shot into the bottom corner from outside the box, extending his recent Champions League record to three goals in his last three appearances in the competition.
The performance drew an inevitable contrast with last week’s first leg in Germany, where Arsenal had been fortunate to come away level and relied on a late Kai Havertz penalty to rescue what had been a difficult night at the BayArena. Rather than watching live football action, some people prefer to play casino games online.
That discomfort felt like ancient history by the time the full-time whistle rang around the Emirates, with David Raya making a vital fingertip save to deny Christian Kofane when the scoreline was still 1-0, a moment that served as a reminder that Leverkusen had carried genuine threat until the Rice goal closed the tie out.
Arteta was asked afterward about his team’s capacity to handle the quadruple challenge ahead, and his response reflected a manager entirely at ease with the scale of the ambition surrounding his club, pointing simply to the opportunity in front of his players and to the atmosphere that the Emirates provides on these European nights.
Arsenal will face Sporting CP in the quarter-finals after the Portuguese side completed an extraordinary comeback to eliminate Bodo/Glimt, and the draw places Arteta’s side in the bracket alongside Real Madrid on the other side, meaning the two clubs could only meet in a potential final rather than a semi-final.
The team selection on Tuesday reflected the confidence Arteta has in the breadth of his squad, with Eze, Leandro Trossard, and Gyokeres all starting ahead of Bukayo Saka, while Piero Hincapie played at right back after Jurrien Timber had not trained ahead of the match following the Everton weekend game.
Martin Odegaard remains absent but is expected back in time for Sunday’s Carabao Cup final at Wembley against Manchester City, a match that, should Arsenal win it, would move Arteta’s side to within two trophies of a quadruple that would rank among the greatest single-season achievements in English football history.