Arsenal 4-0 PSV (Saka 8′, Trossard 20′, Jesus 38′, Odegaard 70′)
EMIRATES STADIUM — The Arsenal fans started to file out five minutes before half-time. They had done the same, give or take an hour, the last time the Emirates hosted Champions League football.
Then it was an act of revolt. A fanbase that knew this was the temporary passing of their club as a continental relevance and they did not wish to feel the final breaths on their skin. Now it was worth beating the queues for a celebratory beer. The only thing you’d miss was another goal.
There has been great talk this week of the change in Arsenal, distilled by their invites to these party nights. Wednesday was heralded as both the mark of distance travelled and an opened door to a great expanse of new potential.
The moments may be cliched, but you enjoy them just the same. The last two words of the Champions League anthem were extended for three seconds longer than is normal.
Just as relevant is that, if Arsenal have changed to return to this competition, the competition has been altered too in Arsenal’s absence. Back in 2017, the Premier League was on a five-year run without a European Cup winner.
That year, Leicester City were the only English representatives to reach the quarter-finals. Then, Arsenal might have dared to dream. Now, the Premier League’s financial dominance dictates that you should expect to flourish.
You might predict PSV Eindhoven to be the second strongest opponent in Group B. After all, Sevilla are 17th in La Liga and Lens rock bottom of France’s top tier. PSV are league leaders and league champions, but even they are a sign of the times. Their major piece of summer transfer business was to sell their most valuable asset to Nottingham Forest.
Arsenal were rampant. It was a night of blissful glory, the rain relented from torrent to flow and seemed to grease the wheels of Arsenal’s passing, particularly on the break. The goals came quickly and easily, the first via a soft Walter Benitez parry and the rest through the simple truth that Arsenal possess quicker, slicker attacking weapons than the vast majority of teams in this tournament. Bukayo Saka was the star, of course. In years it will cause confusion that his Champions League debut only came at 22.
Take a bow Martin Odegaard!
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) September 20, 2023
The captain fires in a wonderful finish from outside the box as Arsenal run away with this game!#UCL pic.twitter.com/kP79276nBw
As so often with Arsenal, it was the moves behind the moves that most make you purr. The Gabriel Magalhaes pass with his left foot that set Leandro Trossard free. Ben White turning out of trouble and into space with his customary silent authority. Emile Smith-Rowe and Reiss Nelson in mischievous combination before Martin Odegaard shot low and true as he tends to do; those two academy graduates have waited as long as supporters for this too.
There could have been more, if we and they and Mikel Arteta are being greedy. Gabriel missed his header from a yard and Kai Havertz skied over from 20 – his lack of goal-affecting contribution the only black mark. Gabriel Jesus produced his own party trick, scoring the one you don’t expect him to score and missing the one you do. Jesus was also fabulous at linking up play.
The last time Arsenal played in this competition, they conceded three goals in the final 15 minutes, torn apart and chewed up by a Germanic meistermannschaft.
Arsenal chased players and barely stepped into their shadows, broken by a haunting sense of semi-permanent ennui. This was a competition without competition for them, every victory merely a prelude to the eventual punchline at their own expense.
On Tuesday, embarrassing ease. The repeated noise over the final 15 minutes was that unique “Ooooh” that only supporters of a team with a handsome lead can utter. It conveys the thinnest slice of disappointment at a missed opportunity. Then comes the applause, a layer of acceptance that it would only have made a great night slightly more great. When they’re telling Ben White to shoot every time he gets the ball and not because they’re desperate, all is well.
As the Emirates once again welcomed back the Champions League, those who left it slightly early or slightly late uttered silly little laughs at the comfort of their re-arrival to the scene of previous ignominy. Their league is dominant and they are frequently good enough to be dominant within it. The excitement at reacquaintance should give way to something far more meaningful: Arsenal should fear nobody.
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