Chasing down the quadruple
Job done at plucky Mansfield Town in the FA Cup 5th round and Arsenal will wake up this morning with a quarter final meeting with Southampton in April and still at the business end in the four trophies available to them this season. No mean feat for any team at any time and only Pep Guardiola's Manchester City (Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League in 2022-23 and Alex Ferguson's Manchester Utd (Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League in 1998-1999) have managed to get close to the historic quadruple winning three trophies out of four in a season.
This season, along with Mikel Arteta, Pep's City have the same chance as the Gunners as they too are still involved in all four competitions after moving past Newcastle in the 5th round on Saturday evening. City however, have a deficit to make up in the league as they trail the north London giants by seven points with a game in hand.
Arsenal's involvement in all competitions this deep into a season is worth a mention in itself given the difficulty that each event presents and who knows come May how this plays out. This unique opportunity to make history comes with a lot of excitement from the media, generating headlines and hours of dissection from the countless pundits online and on television but it's a time for calm at the Emirates for the men in red and white. Arteta knows that they have to maintain their push for the trophies without any added distractions and as former Arsenal invincible legend, Jérémie Aliadière said, Arsenal have to block out the noise and criticism if they are to win the Premier League title.
Turn off the noise
The noise that Aliadiere refers to is of course the analysis and dissection of Arsenal's tactics after every game and the opinions and verdicts offered on every TV and social media platform. From recent comments about whether Arsenal can win the quadruple to the assumption that Arsenal only score from set pieces,
Arsenal need to maintain their focus and block out the frenzy that surrounds the team. With a seven point lead in the Premier League, a place in the Carabao Cup final, into the round of 16 in the Champions league and the quarter finals in the FA Cup any distractions for the Gunners at this stage could be detrimental to their challenge in each.
Strangely enough, as the set piece theory gained momentum a few weeks back suggesting that the Gunners had only one route to goal, official stats showed that there is only one team that has scored more goals from open play than Arsenal this season and that is Manchester City. So much for the only set pieces theory then, and for further affirmation Arsenal and City have both scored 59 goals in the league this year which belies the boring football allegations from some quarters. Moreover, in direct contrast to the 'boring football' allegation, Arsenal were the first team in the Premier League to reach 100 goals in all competitions this season, a fantastic achievement to reach this milestone in March in modern day football.
Noni fires home our 100th 🎯
— Arsenal (@Arsenal) March 9, 2026
How we managed to reach the impressive milestone for yet another season 👇
Up Next
Next up for the Gunners is the resumption of the Champions League and a round of 16 tie against Bayer Leverkusen from the Bundesliga. Looking at the head to head match ups, the only previous Champions League meeting between the two was back in 2002 where both teams played out a 1-1 draw. Significantly though, since their home defeat to Stuttgart in January, Leverkusen have gone 5 matches unbeaten at home in all competitions and will hope to use that home momentum to good effect. Arsenal on the other hand go into the tie having won all eight of their qualifying games and will relish the opportunity to continue that form against their German opponents.
