Kai Havertz feels something incredible is brewing at Arsenal. After David Raya confidently said he’s “100 percent” sure the Gunners can win the Champions League, Havertz delivered a dramatic stoppage-time goal against Sporting Lisbon, giving Arsenal the edge in their quarter-final tie before next week’s second leg at the Emirates.

Things were tense heading into Tuesday’s match at the Jose Alvalade Stadium. The team had just lost two games in a row for the first time this season, so their momentum was hanging by a thread. But that late 1-0 win flipped the mood completely, suddenly fueling Arteta’s squad with hope they won’t finish the season empty-handed.

Havertz admitted, “That win was huge. We’ve all been frustrated these last few weeks. But now’s the moment to move forward, stay positive, and stick together. As a group players, staff, fans we can still make something happen. This season can still turn into something special. That’s what we’re aiming for, and now we just need to keep winning games.”

The man behind much of Tuesday’s success? Goalkeeper David Raya. The Spaniard was controversially benched for both of Arsenal’s cup defeats against Manchester City and Southampton, but after coming back into the lineup, he put on a show, making a stunning early save against Maxi Araujo and stepping up with two more crucial stops before Havertz’s late goal.

Raya’s clean sheet was his 22nd in 41 games so far no other goalkeeper in Europe’s top five leagues has more. After the match, Raya didn’t hold back with his confidence, saying Arsenal not only will reach their second-straight Champions League semi-final (a first in club history), but could go on to win the whole thing.

He told Amazon Prime, “We believe completely we can win it. We have to take it step by step, game by game, and keep showing what we’re made of. Belief matters; if you don’t believe, you won’t win, so you keep believing, no matter what. After two losses, we had to learn from them, use that pain to push ourselves and get better every day. That’s important, and that’s the message we need to send.”

Arsenal jump back into Premier League action this Saturday, hosting Bournemouth. With a win, they could stretch their lead over Manchester City from nine points to 12. City face Chelsea at Stamford Bridge the next day, so the pressure’s on.

When Arsenal take on Sporting in their Champions League quarter-final first leg on Wednesday, there’s more on the line than just surviving another knockout night in Lisbon.

This is one of those moments where Arsenal need to prove those back-to-back losses first to Manchester City in the Carabao Cup final, then a tough one against Southampton in the FA Cup, aren’t about to torpedo the rest of their season, either in Europe or in the Premier League.

People keep calling Arsenal the “nearly men” under Mikel Arteta, and it’s hard to argue with three straight second-place finishes in the league. But this season, they’ve played with a certain edge, pulling nine points clear at the top, reaching one cup final, and still pushing for more in Europe and the other domestic competitions. Their style gets picked apart sometimes, sure, but now everyone’s watching their mentality.

Up until the City and Southampton defeats, Arsenal hadn’t lost back-to-back games all season. The Southampton loss was only their fifth all year. And as the pressure mounts in the Champions League and Premier League, the trophies they truly crave, Arteta needs to prove that falling just short in the past isn’t going to haunt them while chasing their biggest prize since 2020.

Arteta himself keeps it real. “Have some perspective about how difficult it is, what we’ve done so far,” he said when asked about avoiding a losing streak. “Feel the pain, feel the emotion, and use it to be better.”

He says the team knows exactly what went wrong against Southampton, and he doesn’t think the loss was deserved. “That’s football, we got punished for things that are part of who we are,” he said. “Those are the things we need to protect, always.”

Still, Arteta insists his players are “hungrier than ever”, and these recent stumbles don’t change anything about how huge the Sporting match is. “If we’d won, it’s still the Champions League quarter-finals, it doesn’t get much bigger,” he said. “We worked all season to get here, and we know exactly who we’re up against.”

But even with a nine-point Premier League lead, Arsenal fans are chewing their nails. Why? Because City are on a roll. Guardiola’s team dominated Arsenal at Wembley and then hammered Liverpool in the FA Cup over the weekend. On top of that, Arsenal are battling injuries, with 11 players recently pulling out of international duty, and both Saka and Timber are out for the match. Gabriel Magalhaes tweaked his knee against Southampton, and Odegaard is still building up fitness.

Sporting boss Rui Borges isn’t expecting Arsenal to be flat just because they've lost two in a row. “They’ll be a wounded beast,” he said. “That means they'll be more focused, more determined, and it actually makes our job harder. But we’re ready. We believe we can do something extraordinary, something Sporting has never done before.”

Sporting have never made it to the last four of the Champions League, and they’re hoping to pile more pressure on Arsenal.

Arsenal’s goalkeeper David Raya gets it, too. He says the frustration from those defeats is exactly the fire they need. “We’ve got to use that pain as our fuel for the rest of the season,” he said. “It starts with Sporting. That’s all that matters right now.”