For three players, the 2-2 draw with PSV Eindhoven on Wednesday night may have been their last hurrah for Arsenal in the Champions League. With a tough run-in followed by a summer transfer window in which they are expected to leave, it is perfectly plausible that Mikel Arteta will not give them another minute in the competition.
The manager took his opportunity to rotate at the Emirates Stadium, with Arsenal going into the game 7-1 up after running riot in the away leg. Raheem Sterling, Kieran Tierney and Jakub Kiwior may have been pleased to see their names on the team sheet, but in some ways their rare start was a bad omen.
Arteta rested wherever he could in what was essentially a complete dead rubber. But there is no doubt that he will go full strength against the might of Real Madrid in the quarter-finals, and will continue to do so into the latter rounds of the tournament if Arsenal get past Los Blancos.
Sterling assisted both of the Gunners’s goals at home to PSV, setting up Oleksandr Zinchenko in the sixth minute and Declan Rice in the 37th. But he has struggled for game time throughout his loan spell, even being left to collect dust on the bench during an attacking injury crisis.
With Gabriel Martinelli now back amongst the matchday squads and Bukayo Saka expected to resume training in the next few weeks, opportunities will be even more limited for Sterling down the home stretch of the campaign.
Kiwior started at centre-back against PSV but he has not made a non-cup appearance since early December. And Tierney has only started two games all season, with one of them coming on Wednesday night.
Arteta has made it perfectly clear where the trio stand in his pecking order by how little he has used them this campaign. Given that all three are set to leave in the summer, a line may already have been drawn under their Champions League achievements in 2024/25.
It remains to be seen whether they will be back at the top level of European competition next campaign. Tierney is on his way back to Celtic this summer, having signed a pre-contract agreement with his former club which will pave the way for a free transfer.
Sterling’s season-long loan does not include an option to buy, and it seems highly unlikely that Arsenal will fork out to purchase him outright from Chelsea. Kiwior, meanwhile, has been consistently linked with Serie A clubs, and this summer could be the window in which he finally finds a route back to regular action.