Arsenal throw down Champions League gauntlet with 7-1 thrashing of PSV Eindhoven

PSV 1-7 Arsenal (Lang 43′ pen | Timber 18′, Nwaneri 21′, Merino 31′, Odegaard 47′, 73′, Trossard 48′, Calafiori 85′)

PHILIPS STADION — Ethan Nwaneri made Champions League history and Arsenal all but booked their place in the quarter-finals with a thumping win over PSV Eindhoven.

Nwaneri, 17, became the third youngest scorer in the Champions League knockout stage and set up another for Martin Odegaard as the Gunners became the first away team to score seven goals in a Champions League knockout stage match.

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Jurrien Timber’s second Arsenal goal had given them an early lead before Nwaneri struck and Mikel Merino made it three after just 31 minutes.

A Noa Lang penalty gave PSV a lifeline before half-time but a quick-fire double after the break from Odegaard and Leandro Trossard killed the game as a contest, before the captain added his second from 20 yards to make it six and then set up Riccardo Calafiori to give Arsenal the luxury of a nerve-free second leg next week.

With Arsenal’s attacking line so injury-ravaged, it was initially no surprise that it was PSV who came closest to opening the scoring, Ismael Saibari hammering the bar after former Spurs winger Ivan Perisic’s cross.

But the frenetic atmosphere inside the Philips Stadion was punctured less than two minutes later by an incisive pass from Trossard which split open the PSV defence. He found Declan Rice and his floated cross was headed home from close range by Timber.

And Arsenal’s lead was doubled in the 21st minute when Nwaneri, starting a Champions League game for only the second time, made it two from two with a first-time finish from Myles Lewis-Skelly’s cross, although once again it was Trossard whose pass cut three defenders out of the game and made the space for the full-back.

Lewis-Skelly had a hand in the opener too, but followed his fine start with a nightmare four minutes, booked for stopping a promising attack 25 yards out and then fortunate not to receive a second yellow for diving in late on Richard Ledezma.

Mikel Arteta was already preparing to make a change when Merino was gifted a goal by some slapstick PSV defending and the manager had no qualms afterwards in saving Lewis-Skelly, only back in the team last night after suspension from a previous red, from himself.

Player of the match: Leandro Trossard 

• Three inspired passes that each made a goal possible, including his own fine finish

Self-sabotage has been a common theme in recent Arsenal’s European adventures, having lost seven of their last eight two-legged encounters at this stage of the Champions League.

And it felt like the start of a familiar story when Thomas Partey grabbed Luuk de Jong round the neck in the box, and Lang converted from 12 yards to reduce the deficit to two before the break, and the PSV captain could even have made it 3-2 in first-half stoppage time, his header a real warning shot for the Gunners.

If De Jong had not headed over from six yards, Arteta’s team-talk might have been a furious one rather than just cautionary, but whatever it was it seemed to have its desired effect.

Arsenal turned 3-1 into 5-1 within four minutes of the restart, first through Odegaard and then Trossard, who for the third time in the match provided a sumptuous pre-assist, this time eventually to set up his own strike.

PSV’s humiliation looked complete when Walter Benitez failed to keep out Odegaard’s drive 16 minutes from time but there was more pain to come in the 85th minute courtesy of Calafiori.

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