Arsenal on cusp of glory, but will a true golden age be the next step?

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This time of year is all about Europe — qualifying for next year’s tournaments or navigating the ones you’re still in.

After the first leg at home Arsenal are in dreamland, having beaten reigning champions Real Madrid 3-0 in their quarterfinal matchup with the return leg in Spain next week.

Arsenal appeared to all but concede the Premier League title to Liverpool last Saturday, dropping two more points in a 1-1 draw with Everton.

But rather than do the expected and take a 14-point lead on Sunday, Liverpool lost just their second game of the season, 3-2 to Fulham.

The lead stands at 11 points with seven games to go, but Arsenal does have a game at Liverpool. If they assume they win that, they need to make up eight points. Not likely, but possible.

So, hosting Brentford this weekend, do the Gunners — who have been crushed by injuries this season — rest any players to ensure full-strength against Madrid next week? Or do they press ahead and hope to keep the pressure on Liverpool?

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Arsenal is in a fascinating spot. For the past several seasons, like Liverpool, they’ve been used to playing at a high level, but just haven’t been able to get past Manchester City. To see City fall so far off the mark and have someone else grab the Premier League trophy will be galling for Arsenal.

Liverpool at least won the league in 2019-20 and looks to equal Manchester United’s record as being crowned Champions of England for the 20th time — if they get over the line this year. Arsenal’s most recent league title came 21 years ago.

Winning the Champions League would be some consolation prize though, as Arsenal never has laid claim to the title as Champions of Europe.

Since Mikel Arteta took the reigns in North London, Arsenal have been convinced they’re entering a golden era that will return the big trophies to their display case. However, Manchester City has blocked any real hope of that.

Guessing that City will reload this summer with lots of new, pricey recruits will have Arsenal fans nervous that they’ve missed an opportunity this season. But the way they handled Real Madrid shows it’s not hyperbole to consider the Gunners one of Europe’s elite teams.

What has frustrated Arsenal fans has been the lack of investment in glaring areas. While a long-term hamstring injury to star winger Bukayo Saka severely dented their ambitions this season, the lack of an out-and-out top-level striker was something fans an analysts were crying out for last off-season. Seeing makeshift striker Kai Havertz go down last month with a season-ending hamstring injury just added fuel to the fire.

An excellent defence and world-class midfield will carry into next season, but buying a plug-and-play striker — which won’t be cheap — could really leap Arsenal up the ladder of expectation and finally reap silverware. Flexing their muscle in Europe this season will help add to recruitment in convincing some top talent to come join the fight.

Teenage revelation Ethan Nwaneri has burst onto the scene due to necessity this season. Paired with a healthy Saka and Havertz, the club have plenty of attacking talent being fed by midfielders Martin Odergaard and Declan Rice, but a true goal-scoring frontman will be the key.

But there’s plenty of competition with several clubs hunting the few elite goalscorers, which will only drive the prices up. Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool, Newcastle and Chelsea are all rumoured to be in the market for a top-of-market striker also.

This is part of what makes the fight for those last Champions League spots so vital.

Arsenal and Liverpool are safe, but Newcastle, Chelsea and City all are scrapping to get into next year’s tournament. Newcastle in particular already have one of Europe’s top goal-scoring commodities in Alexander Isak, but rumours persist that if the Magpies don’t get into the Champions League, he wants to go to a club that’s in. Liverpool and Arsenal already have been linked as having great interest in Isak.

Other names Arsenal are believed to be chasing are Ajax’s Jorrel Hato, Sporting Lisbon’s Viktor Gyorkeres or RB Leipzig’s Benjamin Sesko.

Thumping Real Madrid only gets them to the semifinals, so there’s a long way to go, but it’s ground Arsenal hasn’t tread on as favourites much in the past and this may be the season to see them get it done.

If they get to the semifinal, they’ll meet the winner of Aston Villa and Paris St. Germain. Villa took a 1-0 lead in Paris, but ended up falling 3-1, the third goal in particular being a killer as it was scored in injury time.

Villa is seventh in the EPL, but only two points back of Chelsea in the last qualification spot for next season and they’ve won four of their past five.

Thankfully, they don’t have to worry about keeping pace as they play Southampton this weekend, a team already relegated setting a record for a team knowing they’re going down with the most games left in a season at seven.

The bench can truly be emptied for Unai Emery as he can rest key players and maybe sharpen up some substitutes who will give him options coming off the bench as they throw everything at PSG next week.

Red ink

While Liverpool tries to recover from the loss to Fulham, the Reds have good news on the contract front. With Trent Alexander-Arnold still sounding like he’s off to Real Madrid on a free transfer, news filtered out this week that captain Virgil van Dijk and star striker Mo Salah had breakthroughs in their contract extensions and are expected to commit to two more seasons at Anfield.

This week’s slate

Saturday: Manchester City vs Crystal Palace; Brighton vs Leicester City; Nottingham Forest vs Everton; Southampton vs Aston Villa; Arsenal vs Brentford.

Sunday: Chelsea vs Ipswich; Liverpool vs West Ham; Wolves vs Tottenham; Newcastle vs Manchester United.

Monday: Bournemouth vs Fulham.

Wednesday: Newcastle vs Crystal Palace.