Arsenal raced out of the blocks to defeat PSV by a commanding 4-0 scoreline, kicking off their return to the Champions League in style.
The Gunners took the lead within the first eight minutes of play and never looked back, demonstrating why they are one of the clubs to watch in this season’s league.
Bukayo Saka was the guy who got our show started, grabbing onto the rebound after Martin Odegaard forced a save from Benitez in the opposition goal, and Jesus should have made it two minutes later when rushing through in on goal.
We didn’t have to wait long for our advantage to be doubled, as Saka cut it back across the box into Leandro Trossard, who drove it low and hard into the bottom corner.
Our number nine scored next as we proceeded to punish our opponents for attempting to attack in numbers, and we went into the halftime break 3-0 up and flying.
We appeared to slow down after the break, whether it was due to the manager wanting to conserve energy for the North London Derby this weekend or simply to reduce the risk of a comeback, and we were giving our opponents very little of the ball to try and get themselves back into the game.
Oleks Zinchenko and our three goalscorers from the first half were replaced as we looked to give the likes of Tomiyasu, Emile Smith Rowe, Jorginho and Reiss Nelson some game time, likely with the weekend’s clash in mind, but it was our captain who made it four.
We struck our opponents on the counter once again, and the play appeared to have broken down when ESR overhit his through ball, but we were able to regain control of the ball and put ourselves in a dangerous position for the Norwegian to shoot.
Martin Ødegaard on Arsenal’s win over PSV:
“To be back in this competition is huge for the club and you saw on the pitch today we really enjoyed it.”
I must confess that I had some worries about our team heading into tonight’s game, but those were immediately dispelled by the early goal, and I am now pumped about the rest of the tournament and can’t wait to see how far we can go this year.
