Five-star Arsenal secure statement Champions League win against Sporting Lisbon
Arsenal's Bukayo Saka celebrates after scoring his side's 4th goal against Sporting. Pic: AP Photo/Armando Franca.
Mikel Arteta promised to send out a ruthless team to end his poor run of European away days and how the Arsenal manager delivered.
This deserved dismantling of one of Europe’s most feared teams was what can best be described as a statement win and their best under Arteta in the Champions League.
Talk here in Lisbon over the past few days was that the club that gave us Cristiano Ronaldo as a player and more recently Ruben Amorim as a coach had never been better and virtually unplayable at home.Â
They came into the match unbeaten and second to only Liverpool in the new format Champions League table, fresh from thrashing Manchester City here last time out.
Arsenal scored only their second away win in eight Champions League trips aided by three first half goals via Gabriel Martinelli, Kai Havertz and Gabriel. They withstood a second half comeback goal from Goncalo Inacio and a 65thminute Bukayo Saka penalty killed the game off.
The size of the win lifts Arsenal from 14th to eighth in the table. With home games against Monaco and Dinamo Zagreb followed by a trip to Girona yet to come, they are on course to avoid the inconvenience of a February play-off and qualify automatically for the last 16 of this season’s edition of the competition.
Arteta has only an FA Cup to his name to date but knows the fans and hierarchy demand more to really return Arsenal to the top of the top table. How realistic that is remains to be seen.
It is hard to challenge the notion that the Spanish coach has restored the club’s relationship with their supporters worldwide and returned the club to the levels they need to be at for the first time since Arsene Wenger left seven years ago.
Regularly challenging for the Premier League title and routinely competing in and emphatically winning on Champions League nights such as these as a matter of course. The transformation is not complete, but it is not far off.
Lisbon were rattled by the quality of Arsenal’s start, the way they moved the ball so precisely at pace. The decision to go out on the front foot paid off inside the opening seven minutes when Martinelli put them in front.
Jurrien Timber worked himself clear on the right and sent in a tantalising low right-foot cross with a bit of curl that drew the keeper out while also taking the ball away from him. Kai Havertz looked set to cash in but was blocked by defender Diomande and Martinelli stole in at the far post to score his second goal in as many games.
The second goal, after 22 minutes, also came down the right and was also a quality move. In form Thomas Partey sent Bukayo Saka clear with a chip into the Sporting area and the England winger prodded the ball through Franco Israel’s legs for Havertz to tap in a ball that would probably have gone in anyway.
The stunned Sporting supporters responded by letting off a bunch of green and white smoke bombs and flashing fireworks over the head of undeterred Arsenal keeper David Raya. Arsenal continued to look the more dangerous side in the smoke even when Sporting tried to up the pace of their game.
As the Portuguese laboured the Arsenal supporters stationed high up in the Estadio Jose Alvalade taunted the locals with chants of ‘we want more fireworks.’ A warning against complacency for fans and players alike came in the form of a run and shot by Geovany Quenda, which Raya tipped over the bar just before half-time.
Raya snuffed out the danger from the corner too and moments later was dancing around his area in celebration when Gabriel headed in from a Declan Rice corner with the very last touch of the first half.
The Brazil central defender sprinkled some salt on the wounded Lisbonites by celebrating in front of their fans in the style of their Swedish goalscoring hero Viktor Gyokeres. The highly coveted striker, said to be firmly on Arsenal’s radar too, touched the ball only 18 times in the first half, three of them from kick-offs.
Sporting came out like a rocket at the start of the second half as a Hidemas Morita shot earned them a quick corner. Goncalo Inacio scored when the ball was sent back in and with only two minutes of the second period played it was game on all over again.
Arsenal diligently slowed the game down and Saka buried his spot kick and any hopes of a comeback after Martin Odegaard was hacked down from behind in the penalty area.
Substitute Leandro Trossard’s 82nd minute header from the rebound of a Mikel Merino shot prompted an early emptying of the stadium.
Israel 6, St Juste 5, Inacio 6 (Reis 88), Diomande 5, Araujo 5 (Catamo 68), Morita 6 (Harder 78), Quenda 6, Hjulmand 6, Edwards 5 (Braganca 68), Gyokeres 7, Trincao 6.
Kovacevic, Callai, Fresneda, Esgaio, Brito, Simoes, Monteiro, Couto.
Raya 8, Timber 8, Saliba 8, Gabriel 8 (Kiwior 84), Calafiori 6 (Zinchenko 78), Odegaard 8 (Nwaneri, 78), Partey 8, Rice 7 (Merino 70), Saka 8, Martinelli 8 (Trossard 70), Havertz 7.
Neto, Setford, Tierney Lewis-Skelly, Jorginho, Sterling, Jesus.
Szymon Marciniak (POL) 6.
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