Comment: Revitalised Odegaard and inspired Nwaneri serve Arteta his silver linings

A stunning 7-1 victory at PSV Eindhoven in the Champions League showed Arsenal's crisis has also enabled Mikel Arteta to find a very special new hero – and revitalise an old one.

MAGICAL MEN: Arsenal's Ethan Nwaneri and Martin Odegaard during the UEFA Champions League Round of 16, first leg match at the Philips Stadion in Eindhoven, Netherlands. Pic: Peter Lous/PA Wire.

Injuries have robbed Arsenal of their entire first-choice attack and perhaps denied them a Premier League title, but a stunning 7-1 victory at PSV Eindhoven in the Champions League showed the crisis has also enabled Mikel Arteta to find a very special new hero – and revitalise an old one.

Martin Odegaard’s two goals in a remarkable performance in the Netherlands were only his fourth and fifth of a season in which he hasn’t quite hit the same heights of last year; but he relished the opportunity to lead a young side battling to save their season and ran the game.

It was Ethan Nwaneri, however, just 17 years old, who won Arsenal hearts.

The youngster would not have been playing at the Philips Stadion if Bukayo Saka & Co were fit, but what a performance he produced to all but put his side into the quarter-finals – where Real Madrid or Atletico await.

His goal in the first half was superbly finished, a drilled left-foot shot hit with fearsome pace after some outstanding skill from his 18-year-old former youth teammate Myles Lewis-Skelly set up the chance.

Neither of those players would have been anywhere near a starting place in normal times, and Mikel Merino wouldn’t have been up front either – but he, too, joined the party with a well-taken goal and an assist in a match in which Arsenal, seemingly toothless in recent matches back home, rediscovered their creativity.

Jurrien Timber, Leandro Trossard and Riccardo Calafiori (set up beautifully by Odegaard) also made it onto the scoresheet but Nwaneri was a revelation, delivering a string of crosses from the right wing where he effortlessly drifted away from his marker, time and time again.

One fine piece of skill early in the second half, a quick step-over and a dangerous low cross, saw Arsenal go 4-1 ahead, with PSV goalkeeper parrying the ball straight to Odegaard, who looked revitalised in a mobile and attacking performance in which he pulled the strings all night.

No other team in 200 European fixtures had ever scored seven goals against PSV on their own turf (in fact it equalled their worst result in any competition in their entire history since 1913) so this victory should not be underestimated despite the home side’s woeful collapse; and nor should its potential impact on how the rest of Arsenal’s season pans out.

Nwaneri now has eight goals this season in all competitions and is the real silver lining of what has been a traumatic and complicated month for Arsenal, who sit 13 points behind Liverpool in the Premier League with their dream of winning a title for the first time since 2004 almost certainly over. But could they make amends by delivering the ultimate answer to their critics by winning their first ever Champions League instead?

Perhaps we should not get carried away, an extremely tough test awaits in the last eight. But this morale-boosting victory means Arsenal have now won each of their last five games in the Champions League, scoring 20 goals in the process.

The last time they had a five-game winning streak in this competition? It was 2005-6 when Arsene Wenger’s side reached the final, only to lose agonisingly 2-1 to Barcelona in Paris after goalkeeper Jens Lehmann was sent off.

There are plenty of Gunners fans who have been waiting a long time to put that one right – and perhaps a heady night in Eindhoven will raise hopes that it is not an impossible dream.

That’s a welcome change of attitude after what has been a complicated and difficult time back home.

Out of the League Cup to Newcastle, out of the FA Cup to Manchester United and, let’s be honest, out of the title race thanks to a combination of Liverpool’s form – and their own recent defeat at home to West Ham, as well as draws against Aston Villa, Brighton and Nottingham Forest.

This was a match that Mikel Arteta’s men really had to win to reignite their season; and they did it in style.

It was an admirable performance, especially as the Gunners looked so exciting, energetic and clinical in attack. That’s their usual look, of course, but it hasn’t been like that in recent weeks.

Arsenal went into this tie with some challenging statistics lurking in the back of their minds. Only two goals scored in their last four matches and the North Bank haunted by two successive transfer windows in which their club either failed to sign a striker or decided not to. Take your pick.

Either way, the lack of an out-and-out centre forward, especially when they were offered Ivan Toney back in August before he disappeared off to Saudi Arabia, seemed a massive oversight (especially as Toney has since scored 22 goals in 29 games for Al-Ahli).

After this game, however, we got to see the flip side, and perhaps to understand the club’s reluctance to spend money in a hurry.

It might not end in silverware, of course, because a Madrid tie, whether it is Real or Atletico, is a daunting one, but what this stunning results gives Arsenal, their supporters, their revitalised talisman Odegaard and their new young hero is hope, belief and the energy to give it a go.