Sunday’s shocking loss at home to Aston Villa seems to have gifted the Prem title to Man City, who now boast a two-point gap over us and Liverpool, themselves victims of a similarly shocking loss at home to Palace. We can at least claim some degree of solace in the notion that Villa, unlike Palace, seek a Champions League spot. Still, it’s hard to resist the calamitous feeling that we’ve let a gilt-edged chance at winning the Prem slip through our fingers. It’s now out of our hands, at least for now, so does that mean that the Champions League is now our best chance at silverware?

Even if the first-leg home-draw felt initially like a disappointment, one now compounded by Sunday’s capitulation, it’s well-worth noting that we outplayed Bayern, even if not comprehensively. If not for those inexplicable and out-of-character glitches that gifted Bayern both of their goals, we’d have come away with a comfortable victory, one that might have even presaged our passaged to the semifinal against Real Madrid or Man City.

That last bit does raise some uncomfortable realities. Should we somehow find our way past Bayern in the second leg, we’d crash up against one of the two sides most heavily favoured to win it all. Indeed, the Real Madrid-Man City quarterfinal could justifiably be anointed as the final itself, with the other clashes mere window-dressing to the main event. Still, we have to feel something resembling confidence given that we’ve bested Man City twice and drawn with them once—while this doesn’t quite prove that we can get past them across two legs, there’s enough in it to offer hope.

Lest we get ahead of ourselves, there’s still the not-insignificant matter of this second leg. For as much as we might have outplayed Bayern in the first leg, we have to admit that playing at home without a sizable contingent of away-fans played to our advantage. Suffice it to say that we won’t have similar advantages in the second leg. Allianz Arena will be in full-throat, and our shortage of experience at this level could be our undoing.

Having said that, we’ve gone from favourites to underdogs, and that’s a role that suits us well. What’s more, we’ve seen just how this squad reacts to setbacks. Defeating us, even drawing with us, is akin to throwing stones at a hornet’s nest. The fact that we’ve gone from an unfortunate draw to a shock loss might then come as good news. Let Bayern convince themselves that they’ve come away with the advantage. There is no more away-goals rule, so all we need is a one-nil result.

To get there, I do hope that Arteta plays Havertz up top again, restoring him to a role from which he’s been very prolific of late. I hope Martinelli is fit enough to play on the left with Tomiyasu behind him. I don’t think I’m alone in suspecting that Zinchenko is too much of a defensive liability at this level. We saw enough of how Bayern exploited the Ukrainian’s shortcomings to come away just a bit wiser. Leroy Sané, who rinsed Zinchenko repeatedly before coming off, is expected to be fully fit, all the more reason to deploy a left-back who can actually defend while also getting up the pitch.

I might just be going out on a limb here, but I suspect that this squad will react with righteous indignation to the previous week’s setbacks. We haven’t quite thrown away our chance at winning the Prem or the Champions League—not just yet, at least, even if we no longer control our destiny on either front. I wouldn’t be surprised to see this impudent, impetuous squad rise up on Wednesday to overwhelm our hosts.

Here’s me going out a little further on that afore-mentioned limb. Bayern 1-2 Arsenal. There. I said it (well, typed it).