Well, Arsenal are still in the tie, that's perhaps all that matters at this stage. They will welcome Bayer Leverkusen to the Emirates Stadium next Tuesday ready for a one-legged shootout after drawing 1-1 in Germany.
The Gunners were far from the best. Truthfully, Leverkusen were not great either. However, when two teams with strong defensive units play against each other, it's arguably never going to be the most entertaining of games.
Still, after Robert Andrich's second half header, Mikel Arteta's men fought back through Kai Havertz.
Havertz-Arsenal-Leverkusen
A Leverkusen player for the best part of a decade, the German returned to his homeland to score a vital spotkick in the dying embers of the game. A fortuitious equaliser? Perhaps, but Arsenal won't care one jot.
They will, however, need to be far better in the second leg if they want to advance to the quarter-finals of the Champions League. That includes starboy Bukayo Saka who is no longer undroppable.
Bukayo Saka's tough night in Germany
It's safe to say this has been a really average campaign by Saka's immense standards.
For so long, he has been the poster boy of the Arteta project. He has been the go-to man in attack and the saviour on so many occasions. Yet, after recovering from a long-term hamstring injury last term, the winger has not been the same.
Bukayo-Saka-Arsenal-Leverkusen
The England international has found the net on nine occasions and provided seven assists this season which are not terrible numbers but they are far below par for a player of his quality.
Saka has now only found the net twice in 2026. He has only scored twice across his last 21 matches. That's a run of form that stretches back to Brentford on the 3rd December.
While the wide player has not been at his best, this display was arguably one of the worst we've seen from him in Arsenal colours. It spoke volumes that Arteta decided to sub him off after 60 minutes.
Noni Madueke came on and made an instant impact, eventually winning the penalty from which Havertz scored.
Saka's woes were compounded by his inability to create anything. It's a rare occasion that the club's number 7 doesn't provide a chance for his teammates but he was taken off having not played a single key pass. He was inaccurate with all three of his crosses and completed just a solitary dribble.
That said, it wasn't all his own fault. Those around did very little to help.
Two Arsenal players to blame for Saka's ineffective performance
Saka was not anonymous on Wednesday night. He got the ball and tried to make things happen but, to put it simply, absolutely nothing he tried came off.
While he has usually been the man of the hour since breaking through as a young academy graduate, 2025/26 has been a very different story. He no longer looks undroppable and it really would not be a surprise if Madueke started ahead of him at the weekend.
Madueke-Arsenal-Leverkusen
However, Saka does need more from his teammates, chiefly Jurrien Timber.
The Dutchman was a colossal presence in this Arsenal team last season but right now, as Gunners writer Connor Humm put it, he "looks dead on his feet."
Since returning from an ACL injury at the start of last season, the full-back has barely missed a minute, not just because he's been exceptional but also because of injuries to Ben White.
Timber-Arsenal
White returned to full fitness in the early knockings of 2025/26 but has struggled with fitness problems against throughout the ongoing calendar year, meaning Timber has hardly had any respite. He definitely needs it, particularly if Arteta wants to get more of a tune out of Saka.
Not only is the right-back sluggish but he wastes so many opportunities in the final third to play an incisive pass or beat a marker. He looks incredibly limited technically and his dynamism is severely lacking.
What that means is that Saka is often incredibly isolated in the final third. Unlike when he had White galivanting beyond him for a number of years, Timber usually occupies an inverted role, meaning he's not there to support the winger as much.
Arsenal player ratings vs Leverkusen
David Raya - 6
Jurrien Timber - 4
William Saliba - 6
Gabriel Magalhaes - 6
Piero Hincapie - 5
Martin Zubimendi - 5
Declan Rice - 6
Bukayo Saka - 4
Eberechi Eze - 5
Gabriel Martinelli - 4
Viktor Gyokeres - 3
This has certainly had a negative impact on Arsenal's star man who isn't getting the ball quick enough or even seeing enough of it. His Dutch colleague simply takes too long to get the ball out of his feet.
Saka's fellow Hale Ender in Eberechi Eze was hardly a help on Wednesday either. He played just one key pass and arguably did not get close enough to his right winger to provide aid.
Timber & Eze vs Leverkusen
Stat
Touches
Accurate passes
Key passes
Dribbles
Accurate crosses
Possession lost
Defensive contributions
Eze wants to play more centrally and that's fair enough, that's where he's best. However, for so long, Saka has benefitted from the services of Martin Odegaard and White in the right channel. Unlike Eze, Odegaard prefers to play in the pockets on the right, closer to the wide player.
That partnership has proven to be mightily effective throughout the years with the pair combining for 14 goals in 186 matches. To put that into context, no other player has combined with Saka for more goals. Gabriel Martinelli is the next best with 13 in 202 appearances.
Eze-Arsenal
So, if supporters are ever to see the best of their dazzling winger once again, they might need to see Odegaard and White back in the team. For now, their replacements in Eze and Timber simply are not helping Saka enough.
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