Arsenal Player Ratings vs. Bayer Leverkusen: Eze Stuns Friends and Foes With Brilliance

Eberechi Eze and Declan Rice had their own personal goal of the season competition to send Arsenal into the Champions League quarterfinals.

Eberechi Eze (center) enjoyed his moment of magic. | Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC/Getty Images

LONDON—Arsenal cruised into the Champions League quarterfinals with a 2–0 victory at home to Bayer Leverkusen on Tuesday night which was ignited by Eberechi Eze’s outrageous opening goal.

The reaction of Eze’s teammates said everything about the quality of his strike. Viktor Gyökeres was frozen, slightly hunched over, arms outstretched as though he was hugging a ghost. Ben White and Gabriel were too busy scratching their heads to join in the celebrations while William Saliba wandered across joyously aghast.

Leverkusen had no answer for that thunderbolt or anything else Arsenal offered on a surprisingly comfortable evening. Declan Rice rubber-stamped a 3–1 aggregate win with an impressive effort of his own, but the night will belong to Eze and his moment of magic.

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The Moment That Defined the Match

Eze’s rocket broke the dam but it was no moment of isolated brilliance. Leverkusen’s goalkeeper Janis Blaswich had taken a severe peppering before he was blown away by that booming effort.

So many of Arsenal’s recent games have been angsty psychodramas. Even putting to one side the referendum on aesthetics, every match since the thumping north London derby win has been played with the team and fanbase collectively holding its breath, everything clenched until one hearty exhale at the final whistle.

The stakes were higher than they ever have been this season—lose at home to a side which sacked Erik ten Hag after three games and all that talk of the quadruple swiftly turns into ammunition for ridicule. Yet, there was a refreshing weightlessness right from the start. There was certainly something unshackelled about the opener.

Eze’s first touch saw the ball sit up invitingly, 20 yards from goal as he span to meet it at its apex. Blaswich had barely left the ground to claw at thin air by the time his net was groaning against the force of a truly thunderous effort. The goal was so good it got a gasp of awe from the replay shown immediately after it was awarded and when it was shown again on the big screens at half time.

Rice did his best to rival Eze’s ripsnorter, controlling a wonderful half-volley from the top of the box with his instep into the bottom corner with a kiss of the post on the way.

Both goals were staggering in their execution but it was the concoction which offered even more encouragment. Each came from Arsenal winning the ball inside Leverkusen’s half after pressing them into a hurried clearance. Jürgen Klopp famously dubbed a fully functioning high press to be more effective than any playmaker. When both work in tandem, it solves a lot of attacking stagnation.

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Arsenal Player Ratings vs. Bayer Leverkusen (4-2-3-1)

Arsenal came into Tuesday’s tie needing a win to progress. | Alex Burstow/Arsenal FC/Getty Images

*Ratings provided by FotMob*

GK: David Raya—8.3: Ensured that he emerged with a clean sheet thanks to a wonderful late save.

RB: Ben White—6.7: Forced into the side in place of the injured Jurriën Timber, there was some rust on the cogs of the link-up between White and his familiar partner-in-crime Saka.

CB: William Saliba—7.4: Had his hands full dealing with the bundle of energy and intensity that is Christian Kofane, but emerged triumphant.

CB: Gabriel—7.7: Missed two very presentable headed chances from corners in the first half. Didn’t miss anything in his own box.

LB: Piero Hincapié—7.9: Materialized all over the pitch like a goateed teleporter, sticking a sly boot in just wherever it was needed.

CM: Martín Zubimendi—7.5: A joy to watch. Played this do-or-die fixture with a sense of nonchalance which could have strayed towards arrogance had he not so emphatically backed it up.

CM: Declan Rice—8.7: There was a more progressive edge to Rice’s play, the first look seemed to be forward rather than to a red shirt standing next to him.

AM: Eberechi Eze—8.4: That goal will steal the headlines—and rightly so—but it was the exclamation point in a performances punctuated with more subtle moments of craft and niftiness which were just as important.

RW: Bukayo Saka—8.4: 90 minutes of dutiful ferreting went unrewarded.

ST: Viktor Gyökeres—6.9: Up against three center backs on his lonesome, Gyökeres showed his familiar abundance of fight which was balanced with some actual finesse.

LW: Leandro Trossard—8.1: Really embraced the physical side of his brief, buffeting around the pitch, crunching into tackles and celebrating throw-ins as feverishly as goals.

SUB: Christian Nørgaard (68’ for Zubimendi)—6.6: Kept the midfield ticking over.

SUB: Cristhian Mosquera (69’ for White)—6.1: Not tested defensively at all.

SUB: Gabriel Martinelli (69’ for Trossard)—6.1: Offered little off the bench.

SUB: Kai Havertz (70’ for Eze)—6.0: Tried to punch the ball over the line without any success.

SUB: Myles Lewis Skelly (90’ for Gyökeres)—N/A

Player of the match—Declan Rice (Arsenal)

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What These Ratings Tell Us

• Eze is growing each week. It has been a curious debut season for the summer recruit. The derby heroics would overshadow most other moments but there hasn’t been much else to fade into the background. Arsenal’s supposed lock picker has too often faced low blocks without bringing his keys. He arrived with a battering ram on Tuesday.
• Gyökeres’s unsung heroics were not accurately reflected by his lowly rating. The standing ovation he received upon his late substitution will hopefully offer a soothing counterpoint.
• Is there nothing Rice can’t do? Arsenal’s indisputable player of the season put in another wonderfully all-rounded performance of graft and craft.

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The Numbers That Explain

• Eze’s opener had been coming. Arsenal racked up 11 shots, forced Janis Blaswich into six impressive saves and accrued 1.05 xG before Eze converted the hardest chance of them all.
• David Raya was forced into two saves, only one of which was even remotely testing.
• Arsenal’s tally of 12 shots on target is the highest they have racked up across any game in any competition this season. “We will step up, we will make better decisions for sure, and be more of a threat in that intention,” Mikel Arteta had promised pregame. His team delivered.

Statistic	Arsenal	Bayer Leverkusen
Possession	42%	58%
Expected Goals (xG)	1.75	0.52
Total Shots	21	9
Shots on Target	12	2
Big Chances	1	1
Pass Accuracy	84%	88%
Fouls Committed	4	8
Corners	10	8

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