Well, that was fun.
Arsenal recorded their most comprehensive win of the season against RC Lens and in the process secured top spot in Champions League Group B with a game to spare.
The Gunners ended the evening with six different goalscorers – Kai Havertz, Gabriel Jesus, Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli, Martin Odegaard and Jorginho – with five of them netting before the break; the first time the Gunners had done that since the first game of the Invincibles run back in 2003.
Here’s what the players, coaches and stattos had to say after the match.
Mikel Arteta on Gabriel celebrating a last-minute block with gusto…
When your team has that body language, living every game, every action as we do, good things are going to come. Like the crowd, they wanted more, they celebrate every single ball with us and when there is that connection, it’s really powerful.
Source: Post-game press conference (Hayters)
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Martin Odegaard on captaining this Arsenal side…
I couldn’t be prouder, to be honest. It’s amazing to play for this club, and of course to be the captain as well, and represent the club. I love this team, I love the club and I love what we’re doing, so it’s amazing to be a part of that. I’m excited for what’s to come.
Source: Arsenal.com
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Lens coach Frank Haise on his side’s performance…
We weren’t hoping for that, we were hoping for something else. We are at fault with our usual strong point, namely our central defence. I reviewed the goals, we have a lot to reproach ourselves for. Did we have the capacity and quality to rise to the level a second time? It was not the case. We cannot be at this height on a regular basis. We must accept it, we must recognize it.
Source: Canal Plus (via Foot Mercato)
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Into the UCL knockouts!! Great week, let’s keep it rolling 💪🏼 #COYG #YaGunnersYa 😝 pic.twitter.com/oIicbdFMbX
— Kai Havertz (@kaihavertz29) November 29, 2023
Gabriel Jesus on a great night for Arsenal…
It was a great performance, a top night. I think the fans enjoyed it. And then also we did the job, you know, job done now. We qualified first of a difficult group because, we had difficult opponents and tough games. And then to finish, not finish yet, we have a last game and we go there to win the game, of course, but to finish first, top of the group, is an amazing achievement.
Source: beIN SPORTS
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Mikel Arteta on Arsenal laying down a marker in the Champions League
It’s great that we are able to win in this way, but I think consistently we have shown at home not to concede any goals, and score a lot of goals, that’s a really positive factor, those players need to have those experiences, and believe that we can do it against big opponents, now let’s wait, we have to park it and in February we will know who we are facing and let’s see how we are in that moment.
Source: Post-game press conference (Hayters)
6-0 – Arsenal’s 6-0 win is the biggest ever victory by an English team against a French opponent in European competition. Bagel. pic.twitter.com/gfYjLlXyLb
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) November 29, 2023
Lens player Kevin Danso on his side’s defeat…
I don’t think we turned up as much as we could have. They’re one of the best teams in the world at the moment. And we saw that today, three quick goals in succession and that kind of breaks the camel’s back.
Source: beIN SPORTS
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William Saliba on getting revenge on Lens…
When I return home [to France], I want to win, so the first leg was a bit in my throat. We are qualified, we are first, we will try to finish well against PSV. When a team beats us, what we want is to beat them in return. We reviewed the videos of the first leg, what we did well and what we did poorly, and today it worked very well. At home it was easier for us.
Source: L’Equipe
No player has more goal involvements in the Champions League so far this season than Saka (7).
Gabriel Jesus is joint-second with six. https://t.co/oZh6vw8tIo
— Orbinho (@Orbinho) November 29, 2023
Bukayo Saka after being reminded that he said his mum had to put him to bed the night before his European debut five years ago…
Oh, my God. I did not say that. I knew you were going to bring that up as well. I knew you were going to bring that up. I knew it. I don’t know why I even said that, if I’m honest. Because that didn’t happen. They sort of told me to go to bed. But they didn’t put me to bed!
Source: TNT Sports
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Gabriel Jesus on his love of the Champions League…
I’ve said it many times, I watched it a lot at home, sometimes I missed school to watch because I love football. The Champions League is special like the Premier League, but obviously I already won the Premier League. I want to win that here obviously, but I want to win the Champions League as well. Not just a scoring, but win.
Source: TNT Sports
The last time that Arsenal were ahead by five goals at half time in a competitive first team game was 25 September 1963 v Staevnet (5-0) Inter Cities Fairs Cup
— Andy Kelly 🌍 (@Gooner_AK) November 29, 2023
Mikel Arteta on Takehiro Tomiyasu’s double-assist cameo…
I think he was excellent, he has played a lot of minutes, and we have a really congested period. We are very short at the back at the moment and we had to use the score to make some changes and give some rest and minutes to other players.
Source: Post-game press conference (Hayters)
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Martin Odegaard on a fine team performance…
It was a bit mad to be honest, but we did so well. The intensity, the rhythm we played in, and what we did in the boxes was brilliant. We wanted to keep doing the same in the second half, but the game was a bit different, and it was a solid performance. We knew what we were playing for today, so we managed to do that and of course, we’re very happy now.
Source: Arsenal.com
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Bukayo Saka on whether he was happy to be substituted on 66 minutes…
Not really! I wanted to play 90 minutes if I’m going to be honest. I understand his decision and now I’m focused on Wolves and doing my best in that game as well.
Source: TNT Sports (via Evening Standard)
This is the second time the #Arsenal have had 6 different goalscorers in a European match, after a 7-0 win against Standard Liege in the 1993-94 Cup Winners' Cup. We went on to win the trophy that season
— Tom Ede (@TomEde1) November 29, 2023
Gabriel celebrating that tackle at the end was a real highlight
Im quite surprised they dont do double team on Saka dan Martinelli. They were menacing!!
We pressed and defended as though our lives depended on it right until the end.
In every position we have someone wanting to win.
#coyg
Kai breaking out the Özil #yagunnersya! All the while being a Big Fucking German… it’s all connected maan
Hopefully he can bring us to the final like Lehmann but do one better and win it for us 🤞💪
Easily his best game! Well done Kai. This is the player we were hoping for. Fun game!! Special team we’ve ourselves here!
Might want to add Odegaard to the goalscorer bit at the start of this…. Awesome first half, great atmosphere.
Two goals in two games from Kai, encouraging stuff…
Both game winning 😉
saliba is certainly starting to be more comfortable in front of the reporters, and with his english
Yes. Definitely. But he also talked about having a leg in his throat, so there’s that too.
Several years ago, I had a Swedish girlfriend who told me that the equivalent Swedish phrase translates literally as “I have a cock in my throat”. Although the Swedish cock is male poultry and doesn’t have our slang meaning, she was fluent in both languages, including British slang, and thought it was hilarious!
“We are very short at the back at the moment.” Not sure what this could mean. Aside from Timber (and that’s not “at the moment”), I think everyone is available. Ben White is coming back from whatever his injury was, so maybe he’s not ready for a full 90 minutes yet, but I think that’s all. Kiwior increasingly looks like a quality substitute at centre half and at left fullback, Tomiyasu has been brilliant, and Saliba, Gabriel, and Zinchenko all look very good. So, what is Arteta talking about? On the other hand, who cares? A 6-0 nil victory to… Read more »
Maybe Partey is officially a right back now? – Terrifying
i HATED that experiment so much. The only good thing about Thomas being injured is that Mikel cant try that again
People might look at this game and think: Lens were naive, they let Arsenal play. Not really! They used the same setup as Brentford and it could have turned out to be a similar type of game. They are athletic and strong all across the pitch, well coached and committed, a really uncomfortable opponent, similar to Brentford, except they have an even better outlet than Mbuemo in Wahi. I watched Wahi take on Saliba and beat him, not once but twice in the same action with his burst and feints. That just doesn’t happen to Wilo very much. So how… Read more »
Love Rammers really truly do – but folks that “can’t” see why Raya is the choice are daft – and in no way referring to the rusty mistakes from the last game. It’s not exactly night and day – but it is more significant than a lot of folks are making believe.
I think all that is left at this point is those that “won’t ” see why Raya is the choice, rather than those that “can’t “.
Or, put another way, it could have been the same type of game, but Havertz scored early which forced them to come out and play.
There’s no point playing with the bus parked once you’re already in a losing position.
I didn’t see them change too much, but it was 2 and then 3 very quickly. At that point they REALLY have to come out. At 1-0 a lot of teams still play us the exact same way because they want to keep the margins narrow, and they still have hope for 1-1. Some teams even apply that at 2-0 if it’s early enough in the game. We found so much space in this game because of game state, but also because we weren’t afraid to go long.
Does Saliba “review videos” or are they piping in raw data Matrix style?
The discussion is that Arsenal have done us proud as we love to see more of the action in the next game or games it’s like the Arsenal we know are starting to click again this season more grease to your elbows I love what I saw
That interview with Bukayo was pure gold 😍😍❤️
Martin Keown’s final remark to Saka: And you’ve been putting defenders to bed ever since! Absolutely priceless!!😂😂
Credit to them for the win in France and they deserved their day in the sun. But perhaps they should have blocked everyone associated with Arsenal before posting that post match changing room video.
Arsenal has a habit of using such videos as motivation and punishing such oversights rather disproportionately