After the international break, Arsenal faced Stoke City. In fact, the break came at a very welcome time, as it gave Alexandre Lacazette a couple of extra weeks to reach match fitness. He made the bench for the match on April 1st, for the first time since since the Spurs game almost two months earlier.

Without the striker in the starting line up, Arsenal struggled to create anything at all. They’d barely had a shot on target by the 61st minute when the Frenchman replaced Danny Welbeck. After that, Aubameyang scored two goals (one from the spot), before Lacazette won a penalty for the Gunners.

Aubameyang was on a hat-trick, and he’d already scored one penalty that game. However, he turned down the chance to score his third of the day, instead allowing Lacazette to get a bit of confidence with a goal on his return. The 26-year-old duly obliged, and made it 3-0.

Later it would turn out this was massive moment for the Frenchman’s season. He can be very thankful to his strike partner for getting him going.

CSKA Moscow

For the first time since 2009/10, Arsenal were in a European quarter-final, albeit in the Europa League. They drew CSKA Moscow, with the first leg at the Emirates.

Within 9 minutes the Gunners took the lead, thanks to Aaron Ramsey. The initial excitement quickly died as Aleksandr Golovin curled in an impressive equaliser. Suddenly CSKA had an away goal.

Not long later, Arsenal won a penalty, and fresh from his goal at the weekend, Lacazette stepped up to convert it. Ramsey then scored a sublime second (Arsenal’s third) with a back-heel volley. Lacazette added another before half-time, and the home team were in a commanding position despite that one conceded.

The second half was much less eventful, apart from a very unfortunately timed injury to Henrikh Mkhitaryan. He was ruled out for about a month after the game.

Over the weekend, Arsenal played out a 3-2 win over Southampton, with Danny Welbeck scoring a brace and Aubameyang adding another goal to his tally. Mohamed Elneny picked up a red card late on, but the FA overturned it afterwards.

Then it was off to Moscow for the quarter-final second leg. All Arsenal needed to do was avoid a three goal defeat, but they made it difficult for themselves, going 2-0 down after 50 minutes. Then Mohamed Elneny and Danny Welbeck combined for their respective biggest moments of the season, with the Egyptian setting up the Englishman for 2-1.

At that point, Moscow needed two goals just to level it up, and they lost their rhythm. Aaron Ramsey scored in injury time to ensure it ended level on the night, and Arsenal progressed to the semis.

The next day, they found out their opponents, Atletico Madrid, the favourites for the entire competition.

The Final Straw

Before the tie against Madrid, Arsenal had a couple of Premier League matches to deal with. First, they travelled to St. James’ Park to face Newcastle United. Despite Lacazette scoring again to give the team an early lead, Newcastle came from behind to win.

The defeat ensured Arsenal remained one of the only teams in the entire country to pick up zero points away from home in 2018.

This turned out to be the breaking point for Arsenal and Arsene Wenger. The following Friday, Wenger announced he would step down from his role as manager at the end of the season. Suddenly the remainder of the campaign took on a completely different feel. It was a chance to send the manager off, perhaps with one last trophy.

Back at the Emirates, Arsenal continued to cruise, as they had done almost all season at home. This time against West Ham United, Monreal gave the team a second half lead. Although Marko Arnautovic quickly equalised, Arsenal piled on the pressure late in the game after Aubameyang entered the fray.

Aaron Ramsey scored the second of the game, and Lacazette added two more to ensure a comfortable victory in Wenger’s final London derby.

Europa League Semi-Final and a Trip to Old Trafford

With the crowd back on side, and Champions League qualification at stake, the atmosphere was electric for Arsenal’s semi-final first leg against Atletico. The team responded to the crowd’s energy, and dominated the match from the first whistle. It helped that after 15 minutes Atletico went down to 10 men, thanks to a second yellow.

Wave after wave of Arsenal attacks threatened to break down Diego Simeone’s side, but they resisted, largely thanks to Jan Oblak in goal. Eventually the breakthrough came from an Alexandre Lacazette header, not exactly the most likely source.

Just when it looked like Arsenal were going to head to Madrid disappointed to only have a one goal lead, they managed to go one further and let in an equaliser. The defending was shambolic as Koscielny failed to clear, then Ospina deflected the ball back into Griezmann’s path, before Mustafi slipped over and the ball bounced off him into the goal.

The away goal killed the buzz around the ground, and left Arsenal with a lot of work to do in Madrid.

At the weekend, Wenger played youngsters and debutant Konstantinos Mavropanos against Manchester United, resting his star players for the trip to Spain. Ainsley Maitland-Niles was man of the match and Mavropanos played excellently, but the young side lost in heartbreaking fashion to a late winner from United’s full strength team. It ended 2-1.