The English Arsenal celebrated their reunion with the Champions League, six years after their last participation, with a successful score against PSV Eindhoven (4-0), with a defense far too permeable to compete at the start of the phase of groups.
The current Gunners were not there during the last great European adventure, contested under the orders of Arsène Wenger in 2016/2017, but it is as if they wanted to make up for lost time, in a packed Emirates . The young Bukayo Saka, 22 years old and a novice in the great Europe of clubs, took only seven minutes and fifty seconds to unlock his counter (8th, 1-0), capsize his supporters with happiness and dampen the enthusiasm of the Dutch .
And as the goals fell like rain, uninterrupted in the London night, the English international put Leandro Trossard into orbit (20th, 2-0), before the Belgian winger in turn served Gabriel Jesus (38th, 3-0) to put the Gunners away, already, even before half-time. “Being back in this competition is a huge thing for the club, you could see it on the pitch today», Commented captain Martin Odegaard. The atmosphere was “amazing“, It is “a nice start“, said the Norwegian on TNT Sports.
Certainly, this is a first match against an opponent who is not very threatening and far too porous defensively, like the former Nice goalkeeper Walter Benitez, guilty of a failed save on Odegaard’s shot, which Saka took advantage of the opening goal.
But the north London team have planted promising seeds for their European adventure, which will continue in Lens on the next day, October 3.
Rich squad for Arteta
Declan Rice, his summer recruit at 122 million euros, rakes the balls and waters his partners as if the Emirates had always been his garden. Scorer on the 4-0 (70th), Odegaard treats a notch above, while the attack line of the vice-champion of England works wonderfully well.
On the other hand, we will have to wait for a higher level of adversity than that proposed by Luuk De Jong and his “Red and white» (red and white), to judge the defense of William Saliba and others against the European storms.
In the meantime, coach Mikel Arteta will have gained even more certainty on Wednesday about the quality of his squad, including replacements. The Spaniard has rich alternatives in almost all positions, in the event of injuries to a potential starter or when he wants to revive the competition, which he has done diligently since the start of the season.
Against Peter Bosz’s PSV, he chose to entrust the cage to David Raya, lined up for the first time on Sunday against Everton (1-0), rather than Aaron Ramsdale, Temple goalkeeper for the last two seasons.
And he was able to count on the effectiveness of his plan B on the left wing, Trossard, already a scorer against the Toffees this weekend after replacing the injured Gabriel Martinelli. Taking advantage of the large advantage, Arteta even allowed himself some fairly early changes to give his staff a break, starting with Saka, Rice and Jesus. On Sunday, neighbor and rival Tottenham comes to play the “North London Derby», a summit that supporters are awaiting with equal impatience.
