Arsenal’s latest win over Leverkusen hinted at something much bigger

Could this finally be Arsenal's year in the Champions League? Mikel Arteta's team have now reached the quarter-finals for a third successive season, overcoming Bayer Leverkusen 2-0 on Tuesday night. Long-range screamers from Eberechi Eze and then Declan Rice secured victory in the second leg.

It was a dominant display from the Gunners, who mustered 12 shots on target, their highest tally in any match in any competition this season.

Arsenal's 8+ shots on target in a match 2025/26 season

Tuesday was only the 11th occasions in 49 matches across any competition this season that Arsenal have accumulated eight or more shots on target, and the numbers do make for interesting reading.

Of these 11 games, six have come in the Champions League, including all three in which they've mustered ten or more. In fact, one of the two Premier League matches they reached nine Artera's team actually lost at Villa Park back in early-December. The other ten occasions all produced victories.

This does though support the zeitgeist that this team are better suited to Champions League football rather than domestic league opposition. Arsenal's kryptonite is mid-table teams who defend in a low block, hence why they've repeatedly dropped points against teams of the ilk of Fulham, Brentford and Everton, very nearly doing so against the Toffees as recently as the weekend.

Meantime, in the Champions League, everyone they face has finished towards the top of their domestic league, so fancy themselves to go toe-to-toe a bit more, as well as having less practice when it comes to facing a team as strong as Arsenal.

Arsenal victories by 3+ goals 2025/26

In the Premier League this season, Arsenal have only scored 3+ goals on eight occasions all season, which represents 26% of fixtures, while doing so six times in just ten Champions League outings. This surely has to give Gooners encouragement ahead of next month's quarter-final.

Arteta's side will face Sporting CP in the last eight, with the first leg at Estádio José Alvalade, before the pair reconvene in North London a week later. The winners will then venture to Spain to take on Barcelona or Atlético Madrid in the semis; PSG, Real Madrid and Bayern are all on the opposite side of the draw.

Of course, if Arsenal are to be at the Puskás Aréna on 30 May, they will have to work hard to get there, but ties against Sporting and potentially Barça would surely suit them. The Portuguese outfit have kept only three clean sheets across their last 17 Champions League matches, a sequence that features a 5-1 annihilation when Arsenal visited Lisbon during last year's league phase.

Given everyone's desperation to get over the line, every Premier League match at the Emirates feels like a nervy ordeal, whereas the Champions League games feel relaxing in comparison, and that appears to be the case on the pitch as well as in the stands.