Arsenal: Raya, White, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko, Rice, Odegaard, Havertz, Saka, Trossard, Jesus.
Subs: Ramsdale, Hein, Cedric, Tomiyasu, Kiwior, Jorginho, Elneny, Smith Rowe, Vieira, Nelson, Nketiah
Arsenal kicked off their first Champions League campaign in six years with a 4-0 win against PSV Eindhoven, thanks to goals from Bukayo Saka, Leandro Trossard, Gabriel Jesus and Martin Odegaard.
The main talking point pre-kick off was the selection of David Raya who kept his place in goal ahead of Aaron Ramsdale, with Kai Havertz, Trossard and Jesus also coming in for Fabio Vieira, Gabriel Martinelli and Eddie Nketiah.
It took just eight minutes for Arsenal to take the lead through Saka after he was quickest to react when goalkeeper Walter Benitez palmed out Martin Odegaard’s stinging effort. 1-0.
Gabriel Jesus almost doubled the lead moments later but was inches away from connecting to Ben White’s low cross, however Leandro Trossard did make it two after finishing a lovely counter attack – curling a low strike into the bottom corner after good work from Jesus and Saka – to score his second goal in as many games. 2-0.
PSV looked shellshocked already despite creating a few openings themselves and the chances kept flowing for Arsenal with Havertz shooting over and Jesus forcing Benitez into another acrobatic save after some sharp footwork in the penalty area.
But the Brazilian would eventually get the goal his first half performance deserved after controlling a looped Trossard cross expertly before rifling a shot into the far corner, kick-starting the party atmosphere in North London. 3-0.
Understandably, the pace dropped slightly in the second half with an eye on Sunday’s North London derby, although two chances did fall to Jesus who just lacked the final action after being found by Odegaard and Havertz respectively.
Arguably the loudest cheer of the night arrived when Emile Smith Rowe was introduced for his first appearance of the season alongside Fabio Vieira, who replaced Jesus and Saka with 20 minutes to play.
And it wasn’t long before those Arsenal fans were celebrating a fourth when Odegaard drilled into the bottom corner from the edge of the area – his trademark finish – after some nice combination play between Smith Rowe and Nelson down the left hand side. 4-0.
As opening nights go, things couldn’t have gone much better for Arsenal and Arteta who welcomed Champions League football back to Emirates Stadium with a bang. Four goals, no injuries and key players were also taken off early ahead of Spurs’ visit on Sunday.
After trudging their way through some games against deep blocks early this season, the shackles were finally off their feet – and boy did Arsenal dance.
Yes
I know,
It’s only PSV,
But I like it,
Yes I do.
Bang time. And brown trouser time for spurs fans.
COYG!!!
We need to do one of those last minute winners vs sp*rs, best way to win worst way to lose
I’ll go with a quick five goal first half instead, thank you very much. My Garmin will overheat and burn through my arm if it’s a nail biter like you suggest
I suppose maximum humiliation also works
I was going for maximum disappointment
You’ve been down voted by spurs fans. you love to see it.
Can’t wiat to shut Son up!
That Jesus goal was art. From the goal kick all the way to the back of the net… 👌
Great performance! Clean sheet and even Havertz played well. Looking good for getting out of the group and more.
Havertz’ movement was crucial in both the second and fourth goals. Underappreciated.
Havertz does the simple things well. He’ll be a big threat once he gets his confidence up, he needs that Helder to Bergkamp moment
Absolutely.
Am I right in remembering Dennis took 10 games to get off the mark?
He was alright after that…
7 I believe. The rest was history
I was there at that Southampton game!
I am fully expecting Havertz to take off soon too.
Yeah, but but but, he didn’t get a hatrick and stuff. I think we saw elements of what is to come now Jesus is back – often we saw havertz ahead of Jesus in passages of play providing the 9 role with GJ dropping off, something we’ve not really seen thus far.. And we’ve seen raya known for his distribution aiming longer balls at KH and GJ who are both very adept at holding the ball up with their backs to goal or flicking it on to bring others in. Things will play out and we’ll see what the intentions… Read more »
Don’t know what game you were all watching but Havertz was a passenger. He’s also slowing the team down. That shot in front of an open goal in the first half was embarassing.
Havertz was quite poor in the first half but improved as the game went on, and he did some reasonable stuff in the second half. His gait is quite slow and his body language is Ozil-esque so that might trigger allergic reactions in a lot of fans, but he did ok and we will give him time.
Second half was something between a friendly and a training session bro. Havertz’s slow and lumbering, don’t understand what Mikel sees in him.
He’s actually not slow though. This was 3 years ago: https://pro.statsports.com/who-are-the-fastest-players-at-euro-2020/
would you also call william saliba or ben white or gabriel slow? because they’re all about the same height as havertz and all slower in the sprint. seems like you’re watching the matches with an axe to grind instead of observing the actual goings on.
Ah the Havertz referendum continues. In the first half and much of the second, I don’t think i’ve seen a player lower on confidence than him. Barely involved, going through the motions, you name it. He made simple things look difficult, his movements were labored, barely anything he did came off. Then Jesus came off, he went into a CF position and… the lightbulb started to flicker. He held the ball up. He brought others into play. He made some tidy passes in tight spaces. He even had a SHOT! And you saw the shadow the big time player we… Read more »
This was pretty much the first game we’ve seen Jesus and havertz together – my impression from the performance is that we are going to see the two of them dovetail up top – neither of them a traditional 9 neither of them a traditional 10 – neither a 25 goal a season player but no one will fancy facing them, and we could essentially see two up front and at the same time have no one upfront
I tried to squint as hard as I could thorugh these early games. He’s been nothing more than serviceable if I’m honest. If he’s played in MF it should be on the right and from a deeper starting position. He’s wasted in that role. Playing with Jesus and Trossard should help him but it really didn’t. Even in this ridiculously open game and with those ballers around him he was barely there until he moved to CF. It’s not working.
From what I’ve seen tonight I think he will be playing close to being a no.9. Rice was the missing piece to allow zinny to basically be xhaka, which allows Havertz to interchange with Jesus up top (we’ve all seen that Jesus plays way deeper than a 9 but is also not a ten, which is how you could describe havertz – so will we see the two of them interchange?) Do we need a left 8 if we have zinny playing there whilst also having a combo of Jesus and havertz pressing in offensive areas? Does this essentially give… Read more »
Yeah, that’s exactly been the idea, Kai as a box crashing second striker who also helps out in the second phase. I totally get what Mikel is trying to do, and theoretically Kai should have the tools to do it. I’m Arteta’s biggest fan, and I loved the idea initially, but when I’ve actually seen the player try to execute it, it just doesn’t look right for him at all. Kai was supposed to be an upgrade at Xhaka’s position by retaining that deeper ball progression but also bring more incision in the box. So far, he’s only set our… Read more »
?the role doesn’t suit him yet?
You should watch the game a little closer. If you had you would seen Havertz working hard and had some nice touches. His physical presence land work off the ball allowed Jesus to have more space up front.
Imperious performance in the driving rain tonight!
PSV just can’t do it on a wet night in north London.
imagine them traveling to stoke
Trossard was marvellous
Spot on!
Watching the clip about the 3rd goal… He and Jesus were pure class.
Quick maths:
Trossard since his arrival for £27m has 15 goal involvements, or £1.8m each
Mudryk, since his arrival for £89m has 2, or £44.5m each.
That;s what happens when we play teams that just don’t put TEN men behind the ball. That first half was just beautiful to see. Gabriel Jesus: If this man stays fit all season, we might actually surprise everyone and ourselves. He changes the dynamic of our attacks on his own. Gabriel: we used to be a team that big strikers could easily bully (remember Drogba, Benteke, Carroll, etc?)… but with Big Gabi in that big line now, those days are far gone. He RELISHES battles with big and physical strikers like Luuk De Jong and I love him for it.… Read more »
That’s why they do it obv
And with Saliba next to him imperiously dealing with anything that comes his way, we have a centre back pair of true quality
We’re back baby!
I’d never criticise this site but fuck the Utd updates, get enough of those cunts elsewhere (even when they lose).
Great win.
*especially when they lose
Liquid football at times tonight, from Bossard in particular. Superb.
Liquid football. Shit!
Commentator on BT calling him Har-vertz all game long really annoyed me.
Did you hear Virera, too? 😂
Haha, Jesus no I missed that one
Jesus didn’t miss that one tho
Yes heard that 😆
I’m sure he means well and it’s probably the way it’s supposed to be pronounced, but I thought the same for “Gabri-ele” the couple of times he mentioned it too.
Really got my gander up
Don’t forget ‘Zinchenk-or’
This one wrecked my head all bloody night. Absolutely murdering his name.
Bt sport, tnt sport, whatever. They are shit. They hire the worst pundits in the game and have woeful commentators. Awful. Thank god I found the world feed for this one.
I thought that was a bit harsh, then I turned to the TV and saw Michael Owen and though nah fuck it, he’s right .
That and his version of Zinchenko
Some guy on R5Live repeatedly banging on about how Manure cam second last season.
Havertz best game for arsenal so far.
Our attackers got the goals. Captain Fantastic You beauty. Good performance and good start to the champions league. COYG…
North London Derby next. Let’s Go..
Odegard is such a baller. MOTM. Made everything look so easy!
What a good feeling to be finally back! And what a way to win! Nice to see ESR back as well!
We are outstanding
I keep thinking last 2 games Raya was good but he didn’t have much to do. I think he makes it look like he didn’t have much to do.
He overplayed it a few times tonight. Against a stronger side we might have been punished.
PSV were very brave/stupid, they pressed 1 : 1 in our third. No team has done that to us this season. They don’t dare leave us 1 : 1 in a transition if we break the press. That was the game today. They caused us some problems with that but not nearly enough, and too often we were too good and got them running backwards. After that the individual quality told.
Agreed. This is part of what makes evaluating goalkeepers so difficult!
Part of being a world class keeper is good positioning and quick movement and he was spot on. We have 2 solid keepers and that feels amazing.
Bringing that quality off the bench is just showing off.
Really happy to see Smith Rowe getting some game time (and looking sharp). Less happy about Saka coming off at the same time so I didn’t hear *that* song
6 long years but that performance took me even further back.
Yea reminded me of some of the mid Wenger years when we used to wallop teams that weren’t Bayern or Barca
Havertz seems to play at a lower pace than the rest of the team, and I don’t mean that negatively. He’s really good at bringing other players into play and is excellent at hold up play. He will come good, it’s already starting to show.
His whole MO is to fool opposition by playing at a relatively low pace only to then make a surprising run (not just attacking but also tracking back) that catches them off guard
He looks to me like he’s always just about to fall over. Doesn’t matter how he looks as long as he gets the job done I suppose.
He has always looked well, like he’s skinny, shambling scarecrow. It’s part of his deception. He doesn’t really look like he should be playing football.
Our own version of Peter Crouch in terms of physique.😀
How did Havertz play?
Good, especially in the latter stages.
10/10 performance, even with the timing of the subs. Well done Arsenal 👏👍
What a way to kick start our UCL campaign! And a great preparation for the NLD showdown this weekend.
I enjoyed that very much. Once again Trossard, what a player!
I really do feel for Ramsdale but have to say Reya was class this evening, great handling, positioning and – apart from a couple – great distribution.
Welcome back!!!!
Odegaard !!! What a steal
Even at the whistle, he looks ready to go another 90.
He plays football at the cadence of his heartbeat.
What a player!!
Take a bow “Odegaardd’
Two clean sheets in a row. It’s been a while. Feels nice.
Its great to play against teams who don’t park the bus. so much space, nice to see our attacking play bloom.
Feels good to be back, this is where i wanna be.
COYG.
This.. This on Sunday. Please!
Declan Rice what a fucking player. Completely shut down what has so far been an outstanding PSV attack this season and I don’t think he lost a duel all night. Unbelievable signing.
The great thing about the Europa league is seeing the fringe players get a run out
I don’t give a s*it about the Europa League when we’re back where we belong. And actually: We saw some fringe players that needed the minutes.
No Mark von Bommel, luckily 😅
Excellent performance with a nice clean sheet.
Big up to PSV for coming and having a go, but it was the wrong tactics by the Dutch side.
Great Arsenal performances all over the pitch so no MOTM. Nice to see ESR come on too.
A great night’s work – now let’s smash Spuds
First positive comment since our last champions league season
Summed it up great mate
During the CL anthem, I looked at Odegaard and Saka’s eyes and said out loud “they are ready”.
Safe to say, they were
Bukayo “Born Ready” Saka
and Martin “this is MY pitch” Odegaard
I feel Wembley Ramsey is the ‘this is my pitch’ guy tbh.
Take those shackles off my feet fam!
It’s very nice to have multiple players that can and do score from outside the box. It’s been a long time since we’ve had several of those, and it helps immensely to keep teams from packing the box.
I like it.
What I loved most about this game was that Mikel used his subs early and very astutely. Good to also see ESR come on, and play in the LHS. Good rotation option.
COYG!!!
4-0 win with 4 different scorers. Perfect antidote to City’s terminator, and far less affected by injuries.
Welcome back to the Champion’s league.
Finally we played a team that came out to play against us despite having no real business doing so… not surprising to see such naivete from a Bosz team. It was the perfect medicine for this Arsenal team that desperately needed to find its stride in an attacking sense. Four goals later, everyone is happy! A great way to warm up for the Spurs game. I’m pleased with the defensive performance most of all though. PSV don’t have killers or anything but in the past we would’ve definitely conceded one to a team like this. Not today. They got in… Read more »
Actually PSV had won all 4 games this season, scoring 12 and conceding 1. They are top of their league. Don’t downplay our achievement.
To be fair, though, the four teams they beat in the Eredivisie currently occupy positions 13-16 of an 18-team league. But yeah, I agree with what you’re saying. To put it into further context, in 9 matches in all competitions this season, PSV had scored 28 goals prior to this match, and were on a 26-match unbeaten run stretching back to last season. And we smashed them.