Arsena’s marked their long-awaited return to the Champions League with a 4-0 win over PSV at the Emirates this evening.
First half goals from Bukayo Saka, Leandro Trossard, and Gabriel Jesus gave the Gunners a commanding lead at the break, before a Martin Odegaard strike in the second half put the icing on the cake.
Here’s how the players rated this afternoon.
Read the Arsenal 4-0 PSV report and see the goals here
Arsenal 4-0 PSV – Player Ratings
The ratings are hidden by default until you vote, but if you just want to view the ratings and the comments, flick the switch at the top above David Raya. Also, please give the ratings a few seconds to load.
Class throughout! Lovely to see ESR!
How’s Gabriel got a lower rating than Saliba? Gabriel was everywhere and didn’t put a foot wrong.
Willy nearly made a couple of mistakes, but made up for them with his usual style.
What a performance! We’ve got our Arsenal back
Saliba has a certain, je ne sais quoi.
Gabriel is a brawler, Saliba is a silky pugilist
‘Marvelous’ Marvin Hagler, Sugar Ray Leonard
it always happens in everymatch, gabriel looked solid and made two key passes to Jesus in the last match vs Everton, and he got lower rating. Favoritism is all I can tell.
The weight of the pass to free Troussard for the 3rd goal was lovely too….Don’t know why it didn’t won him even some little little little tiny bit brownie points…..Perhaps becoz it can be argued that it was Trossard perfect timing of his run that make that sequence of actions work? Hehehe 🙂 Anyway, first time this season I feel thoroughly satisfied and entertained by Arsenal. At times (and I am being nice here) …..watching Arsenal can be a bit of a drag this season but not tonight. Meanwhile I love Rams (Ramsdale not LA Rams) to bit …and I… Read more »
I don’t know anyone saw the two shoulder nudges by Reiss and Smith-Rowe. If nothing else it shows all in mentality. Loved that!
That one by ESR to maintain possession of the ball was a statement of intent. Great to hear the cheers from the crowd when he was announced.
Not sure anyone could have missed the one by Reiss.
Absolute class performance all round, and a perfect return to the Champions League. Well done lads!
Great to be back where we belong
A good song/ terrible song by the arsenal squad
Martin Odegard, what a player we have on our hands.
Absolute steal in this market as well. Such a silky player.
30 million for him is not even a bargain, it’s daylight robbery in this market..He’s raising his level every game which is scary.
As I type this, probably the best attacking midfielder in Europe
Rosicky Cesc and De Bryune rolled into one
I’d add Ozil cuz of that left foot too
10/10 for whoever wrote the music to that wonderful anthem. I’ve missed you Champions League, and I think, nay, know, that we can win you, if not this season then soon enough.
based on George Frideric Handel’s Zadok the Priest, writen for the coronation of British monarchs… sung for hundreds of years, but then generated some confusion over why King Charles was getting the champions League music for his coronation!
You won’t learn that on Sky Sports
The guy knows Google too well 😅
Rambling Petey? In all seriousness, nice snippet of info that. But does dampen my enthusiasm for the song a tiny bit, because I ain’t no monarchist man. Still a banger overall, just like quite a few MJ tunes I suppose and most of us know there was something seriously iffy going on there. Now I’m rambling. Peace out
You can listen to the Soviet anthem then, they also hate monarchies.
Or La Marseillaise.
Camilla says he dribbles before he shoots…
What an enjoyable watch. Only thing missing was a Havertz goal, but I thought he was much, much better today. Really happy for him, and for all of them. And for me! 😀
he was actually a football player today, which is progress! but still our worst player on the pitch, according to the ratings above. if we win 4-0 with him performing average, imagine when he clicks and becomes a goal machine. odegaard also took some time to become one, so fingers crossed he builds upon this positive performance.
Why be so negative? He was really good, if we win 4-0 every game and he plays the way he did tonight – that’s good enough for me. More performances like that will get goals and assists 🤷🏻
what part of my comment is opposite to yours? i pointed out actual numbers you can see above – he got a rating of 7 (sightly above average) which makes him the worst rated player, that doesn’t mean he played bad. i was actually overly optimistic about his future. if you want me to say he was awesome, sorry, i’d like to keep my common sense 😉
We can’t afford his level of mediocrity against the elite teams as they will exploit that weakness ruthlessly. Ditto Zinchenko’s inability to defend
I was going to post this the other week but remember it’s was in Champions League that Pires came alive for us and never looked back.and while there’s not all that many similarities between Pires and Kai, the lack of confidence and not fully knowing the role within the team is the main points I’m trying to make
This was the game where I saw Havertz bringing the structure Xhaka provided, and also flashing promises of being that and much more. The flexibility to slot into the nine when it’s time to kill the game and bring on another midfielder is just really nice squad construction. I’m optimistic.
The hilarious yellow card White picked up was my personal highlight – I just wish he’d contested it with the trademark deadpan expression
It was only the boot. You get a yellow for that?
An assist for Saka too no? Not bad for your champions league debut!
In the champions league the calibre of opposition is good enough that they have a go too. Leaving more space for our sensational transitions. I have a feeling this is going to be an entertaining season!
Agreed. At the start, Saka seemed a bit surprised not to have 2 opposing players on his back the moment he got near the ball. Then he had fun. What I did notice PSV’s quality was little different from a mid table PL side.
Yea Dest and Lang were very good on that side but we were just better.
Losing Xavi Simons from last season really made the difference for them. Easily MOTM when he played against us there
Just lovely football, great spirit and complete focus throughout. We’re back baby!
1 Champions League performance, 1 goal, 1 assist* ;). That’s 3 goals and 3 assists in all comps this season; if this is Saka not playing well, we’ll be in for a treat when he picks up form!
Also, any surprise that the first game that Zinchenko and Jesus both start is our best performance of the season?
Do believe Havertz could have a Joelington-esque trajectory for us. Provides so much tactically, with work rate and hold up play. In Mikel I trust!
P.s still miss granit tho 🙁
There was a time in game when I mistook Jorginho for Granit from back. Hit so hard that …
One average performance against mediocre opposition does not a renaissance make…
Not only 1 CL goal but also 1 assist for Saka.
Can’t pick a MAN of the match (none of this “player” nonsense),
Get some therapy
My favourite “anti-woke” trend is pretending to have never heard words that have been used in everyday parlance since the dawn of time so as to avoid accidentally promoting equality.
Your problem is your much too focused on genitals, if you thought a little more about the football you might be able to identify the best player. Good luck to you.
In the James, household, Reece is considered the pretty one
It was only PSV……… Not having that. Completely dominated them, toyed with them at times, and looked dangerous every time we went forward. Sure there will be a lot sterner tests ahead, but you can only beat who you play, and that was the perfect start to the campaign. Gooners!
They beat us 2-0 less than a year ago
Our Europa League team
They did indeed. We were poor that evening. Completely the opposite tonight!
PSV beat Rangers 5 v 1 this season
What a fantastic match! Everyone on the pitch had just about their best game of the season, and this fills me with optimism for Spurms on Sunday. With the strength in depth that we now have, I think we can go far in every competition this year.
Special shoutouts to Rice and Odegaard, who were both absolutely outstanding today, and Havertz, who took a really big step forward. Can’t wait to see how this team develops!
CL football has missed Arsenal and her fans for six years now. She’s so glad Arsenal is back, and back with a bang!
Just 10/10 from start to finish. Thanks for the midweek boost – let’s do it to Spurs please
Kudos to our defenders – very solid performance against a capable attacking team.
Lots of candidates for MOTM.
0/10 for the TnT sports commentator, not sure why but thought he was pretty rubbish. Also drove me mad how he constantly mis-pronounced Zinchenko’s and Havertz’s names. Other than that, that was a throughly enjoyable game of football! Please let’s do the same to spuds this weekend
Im convinced he lost a bet and had to deliberately miss pronounce everyone’s names 😂
Goblin tip: Switch the commentators off if you want to focus on the match and tactics more.
Bull tip: Switch the language. You’ll not miss the emotions of Fans this way. And often non English commentators are pretty Invested.
He was trying very much to sound “international”. Gabriel and Vieira too. At least he tried, unlike most of his colleagues. But the one most english commentators pretty much all get *completely* wrong is Ødegaard. And I mean way-way-waaay more wrong than he did for any of the others tonight. 😀
To be fair, it doesn’t look like it should be pronounced Eurgh-de-gore
TBF it’s not pronounced that way.
It’s completely obvious how it’s supposed to be pronounced if you’re from Scandinavia 🙂 I speak.. five.. languages, and I’m still not sure how to pronounce Jesus 😀 I’m not expecting commentators to be fluent in 50 languages, at all, but there’s something funny about ditching the “english” plan “Ode-guard” for something that’s somehow further from how it actually is supposed to be pronounced. We had an old legendary danish TV commentator who pronounced “Hughes” as “Huge” – every single time. I don’t speak japanese (apart from some phrases) but I’m also pretty sure Tomiyasu is actually “To-MI-yasu” (emphasis on… Read more »
I feel these ratings are all a little low. Team played amazing today. Completely dominant. This team beat us last year, they’re absolutely smoking the Dutch league so far.
Well done Gunners!
Loving it is all can say , top stuff , to be honest , think Raya behind Gab, removes a little uncertainty. He’s soo good with ball and decent in air so look like an improvement. Be interesting to see how good he is rushing out to close down Son in a one on one , fairness Ramsdale couldn’t be beaten n that role . Jesus is sharp, leo has a point to prove and Saka keeps being Saka its class. Martin Ode has stepped it up another Level, he’s something we haven’t seen before even going to exceed cesc… Read more »
Saliba, Rice, Saka, Jesus and Odegaard I’d argued are in or close to “World class” territory in their current form. We haven’t had a team with this much quality since the invincibles.
Having Partey, Timber, Martinelli out and just shrugging our shoulders and demolishing Teams in the Champions League? Wow.
Remember some pundit who had to rank who will have the best season between 3 new signing. Ended up with :
1) Tonali
2) Caicedo
3) Rice
Aged like fine wine
Jorginho is our Tonali, Partey is our Caicedo and Declan is our Rice! We have great depth in this position.
What a game! Some takeaway thoughts from me:
Expanded version of these points can be read here: https://theoddfather.co.uk/arsenal-4-0-psv-eindhoven-5-thoughts/
COYG!
Havertz on fire, finally! Baller!
Thought he looked good up top, Oli Giroud esque with the flicks and lay offs.
Can’t remember him being too involved in the midfield but maybe I have some unconscious bias at this point..? Felt like the weak link to me.
Would love to see some stats of his game today if anyone has them
What a game! Some takeaway thoughts from me:
Expanded version of these points can be read here: https://theoddfather.co.uk/arsenal-4-0-psv-eindhoven-5-thoughts/
COYG!
Two clean sheets in a row. It’s been a while. The last time Ramsdale got two consecutive clean sheets in all competitions was at the end of February.
Yeah but be fair, Raya hardly had a save to make in both games.
It takes more than a goalie to earn a clean sheet
J20 should get a bonus point for making Saliba and Gabriel run into the box on the FK in the last minute and then passing short, I couldn’t stop laughing
Didn’t get to see game. Working and without the right subscription.
did get the pregame show and oh my. Folks get hot and bother about Raya and Aaron and that isn’t how it is done.
which is true until that is how it is done.
Jesus was amazing today. So good to see some of that Brazilian samba in an arsenal shirt…
That touch before the goal, how he’s managed to get that backspin after trapping it from the sky…
What a way to announce our arrival to Europe.
Havertz did alright too lol.
GABRIEEEEEEL noone gets past you , gets past you..no more! GaabriEEEEEL
Thank you Mikel! Thats just the tonic for Sunday and a performance for Mr Wenger to be proud of! Thank you all! Arsenal!!! Arsenal!!! Arsenal!!
Superb! All guns firing🔥🔥🔥
10/10 – not having to hear the jarring Europa league theme tune
Was so happy to see ESR out there, really hope he gets more of an opportunity to get back to the form he had before his injuries. He can end up being such a key player for us this year. So great to have an option on the left in Trossard that is so very different from Martinelli (both are excellent players, just wish Arteta would find a way to play both together more), yet at the same level so there is no drop off at all when he is out injured. What a finisher he is with either foot.… Read more »
Arteta Zero out of 10 for tiring attitude. Lucky not to concede early, passes short, not enough changes, wasted opportunity against tired opposition, 2 planted feet from Ødegaard how tired does he want? Good performance but not prioritising balance is poor from the manager. It will just cause injuries and laxidasical respones in games to come. Bonus points for Saka weak foot, silky goals all round, good CB duo, and early subs that looked sharp. Havertz and Jesus avoiding shooting says a lot about fitness. Soares, ESR, Nelson, Nketiah, Jorge, and Kiwior should have started and would have won. Zinchenko… Read more »
Soares should have started 🤔
Soares should have started in goal
Tell me you can’t enjoy a win, without saying you can’t enjoy a win.
When Bots go rogue….
Watched Henry on US TV discuss the game, he was overwhelmed. Kept saying it is early, it is early but he was as thrilled as anyone reading this blog. Such a cherry on the win.
I loveeee Trossard! Such a stylish player, and always delivers on the pitch
Maybe I’m just still over the moon after the game, but some of these ratings seem outright harsh. It was an absolute masterclass, hardly anyone put a foot wrong, and I’m struggling to see how most of the players could have done any better, yet their ratings are in the 7s and 8s? I “only” gave Jesus 9, because sure, he could have gotten a goal or two more, but he was a joy to watch, so quick, so active, so brilliant – made absolute fools of the opposing defenders on several occasions. What more do we want? Is a… Read more »
What a wonderful Thursday morning it is!
How much an absolute burglary was Trosser at 20m?
Isn’t Kai starting to look like close to 40m… only a little more to go?
Is Aaron peeping warily over his shoulder at Deft-foot David? Healthy competition at last.
Jesus really does have a miracle touch… Saka is just, well, Saka… defence as an entity was, well, an entity.
Finally, could our one-touch mastery get any more silky? Smoother than a mink’s ear!