UCL: Arsenal 7th heaven performance dim hope for hapless PSV

Arsenal earned a commanding 7-1 advantage over PSV Eindhoven in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League (UCL) Round of 16 tie, having not won on any of their previous four visits to the Philips Stadion.

The Gunners showed plenty of positivity in the early stages but were denied an opener due to Declan Rice straying offside before beating Walter Benítez. There was still a massive scare at the other end, as David Raya palmed Ivan Perišić’s low cross into a dangerous area and Ismael Saibari crashed his shot against the crossbar under pressure from Gabriel Magalhães, before Ryan Flamingo sent his follow-up wide.

That moment was swiftly punished with Rice dinking the ball to the back post for Jurriën Timber rose to head home. A second made in Hale End arrived just three minutes later, as Myles Lewis-Skelly squared a ball that was clinically finished by Ethan Nwaneri, who became the third-youngest scorer in a UCL knockout match. Lewis-Skelly just about avoided quickfire bookings, but the goals didn’t slow down as Mikel Merino capitalised on calamitous PSV defending by finding the bottom corner. There was still a dampener in the 43rd minute, as Thomas Partey fouled Luuk de Jong while defending a corner and Noa Lang emphatically converted the ensuing penalty.

Rice and De Jong came close at either end before the break, and Arsenal reinstated their three-goal advantage through Martin Ødegaard just over a minute after the restart. Incredibly, the visitors had another 99 seconds later as Leandro Trossard linked up with Riccardo Calafiori and dinked the ball overBenítez. De Jong saw a header saved as PSV looked to respond but Nwaneri continued to threaten with one of his shots being deflected behind by Olivier Boscagli, conceding a corner that culminated in Gabriel heading off-target.

Ødegaard then glided to the edge of the box and beat Benítez despite the goalkeeper getting a hand to his shot. The Norwegian also teed up Calafiori for Arsenal’s seventh as the Gunners recorded a fifth consecutive UCL proper victory for the first time since reaching the final in 2005/06. They also inflicted PSV’s biggest ever home defeat to all-but confirm their quarter-final place.