Young Gunners fire rampant Arsenal into Champions League box seat against PSV
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Arsenal's Martin Odegaard, who scored twice, and teammate Riccardo Calafiori celebrating after beating PSV Eindhoven 7-1 in the Champions League.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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EINDHOVEN – Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta is aiming for only trophies and not records, after his side made Champions League history on March 4 with a 7-1 thrashing of PSV Eindhoven at Philips Stadion.
With the victory, the Gunners registered their biggest away win in European competition and put themselves in a virtually unassailable position to advance to the quarter-finals, where they will meet Atletico Madrid or Real Madrid.
“It’s very significant, but it’s just to put yourself in a really strong position to go through to the next round,” Arteta said following the last-16, first-leg win.
“To put landmarks, we have to really make it to a very different level.
“But obviously, this team has done a lot that hasn’t been done in many, many years or in the history of the club. Which means a lot, but that’s not what we want.
“As a team, we want to achieve many other things that are far more important than that. The happiest I am is because we are in a very strong position to go to the next round, which is where we want to be.”
One of the big positives of the night was when Arsenal’s talented teenage duo Myles Lewis-Skelly and Ethan Nwaneri combined to help the team to their imperious triumph.
On the whole, the English Premier League side were on a different level to the struggling Dutch champions, who were condemned to their worst defeat in European football.
“The standard was way too high for us tonight,” admitted PSV defender Olivier Boscagli. “They were way better in every situation... every time they got into our box, they scored.”
“No chance. Outplayed. Bad,” added PSV coach Peter Bosz, summing up his team’s performance.
Arsenal dominated from the start. Declan Rice’s powerful shot into the PSV net on 11 minutes was chalked off for a narrow offside, but it was a taste of what was to come.
They made the hosts pay seven minutes later. Rice was afforded far too much space in the PSV box, allowing him to chip a cross to the far post, gratefully headed home by Arsenal’s own flying Dutchman, Jurrien Timber.
The visitors doubled their lead shortly afterwards following more generous defending from the side.
Lewis-Skelly, the 18-year-old English defender, found himself in acres of space in a dangerous area, squaring to fellow teenager Nwaneri, who smashed the ball into the top corner.
PSV’s shambolic defending turned to embarrassment as Arsenal made it three after just over half an hour played.
The defence squandered four chances to make an easy clearance, the ball eventually falling to makeshift striker Mikel Merino, who rolled past goalkeeper Walter Benitez.
The shell-shocked fans in the Philips Stadion received a glimmer of hope just before half-time, however, with PSV winning a penalty after Thomas Partey needlessly wrapped his arms around striker Luuk de Jong’s head.
Netherlands international winger Noa Lang made no mistake from the spot.
It was a lifeline for the Dutch champions, who went into half-time 3-1 down after a breathless first 45 minutes.
Arsenal’s Leandro Trossard scores their fifth goal.
PHOTO: REUTERS
But any hope for the home fans was quickly snuffed out, as Arsenal scored twice in the first three minutes of the second half.
Nwaneri broke impressively down the right, squaring a cross that Benitez could only palm into the path of Martin Odegaard, who made it 4-1.
With 48 minutes gone, Riccardo Calafiori eased past the left side of the PSV defence, finding Belgium forward Leandro Trossard, who lifted his shot effortlessly home.
Odegaard grabbed a second as PSV capitulated, and Calafiori compounded the misery with a seventh on 85 minutes, beating the previous record for goals conceded by PSV in Europe – they lost 6-0 to French side Saint-Etienne in the 1979-80 Uefa Cup.
Arsenal failed to score in their last two Premier League games, but Rice, who put on a storming midfield performance, said the nature of their victory was no surprise.
“We feel we’ve been playing well as a team. Sometimes we score five, sometimes two, sometimes we don’t score, but tonight we did well,” he said. AFP, REUTERS
