Arsenal extended their excellent start to the Champions League campaign with a resounding 4-0 win over Atletico Madrid on Tuesday.
The Gunners went into the match having already seen off Athletic Club and Olympiacos by 2-0 scorelines, but were given a tough time in the first half as Diego Simeone’s men limited them to just two shots on target.
After the break, however, it was a different story, with goals from Gabriel Martinelli, Gabriel Magalhaes, and a Viktor Gyokeres double all in the space of 13 minutes killing the game.
Arsenal are now top of the Champions League table with nine points from three games, sitting level with last season’s finalists, Paris Saint-Germain and Inter.
What were the key takeaways from the Emirates Stadium?
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Viktor Gyokeres finally ends his drought
Viktor Gyokeres’ start to life as an Arsenal player has been truly bizarre.
The Sweden international bagged three goals in his first four appearances, but carried a nine-game drought into this match for club and country. Nevertheless, he still brought plenty of qualities that Arsenal have been missing during that time, acting as a focal point up front.
But a striker with this price tag needs to score goals, and finally, he did just that here.
This was about the ugliest brace you could hope to score, with his first taking a huge deflection to wrong-foot Jan Oblak and the second unmissable from a yard out.
But Gyokeres will not care one bit. This will serve as a huge confidence boost — one he’ll look to carry into this weekend’s Premier League clash at home to a problematic Crystal Palace side.
Are you Stoke in disguise?
There are memes doing the rounds right now comparing Mikel Arteta to Tony Pulis, and nights like this prove exactly why.
Arsenal just cannot stop scoring from set-pieces. They’ve already done it 10 times in the Premier League this season, and now, they’ve got off the mark in that sense in the Champions League.
Much like Gyokeres, it was a case of waiting for one to come along and then getting two, with Gabriel’s opener in the 57th minute coming from a Declan Rice free-kick, before the Brazilian turned provider for Gyokeres on a Rice corner.
It’s an incredible weapon for the Gunners, with one criticism levelled against them that they’re becoming too reliant on it. Of course, tonight also featured two open-play goals, which will please Arteta no end.
Arsenal showed multiple ways of breaking down a horribly stubborn Atletico team here, but it was their set-piece expertise that book-ended the goals.
100 club for Arsenal amid more Spanish suffering
Arsenal have had some near misses in the Champions League, reaching the final in 2006, two semi-finals, and a host of quarter-finals, without ever winning it.
Nevertheless, they still have a huge pedigree in the competition, with this being their 118th win. However, in the Champions League, it proved to be a landmark century of victories.
The Gunners have enjoyed themselves particularly against Spanish teams, with this their second victory of the season against such opposition after beating Athletic Club 2-0 to open the Champions League campaign.
In fact, Arsenal have now become the first team in Champions League history to win seven straight games against Spanish opposition.
That, of course, includes their famous quarter-final victory over Real Madrid last season en route to a semi-final disappointment.
Are they building a platform to finally win the competition for the first time this season?
Arsenal’s next five fixtures:
- Crystal Palace (H) – Premier League
- Brighton (H) – EFL Cup
- Burnley (A) – Premier League
- Slavia Prague (A) – Champions League
- Sunderland (A) – Premier League