The last time Arsenal won a game by a noticeably big margin, hope was in the air and a season was alive with possibility. Ever since that 5-1 dismantling of Manchester City, however, Arsenal have been trending south. So this embarrassment of the Dutch champions was, at the very least, a large step back in the right direction.
Arsenal were lovely to watch here in Eindhoven against a team that played right in to their hands and finished up humiliated. Come at Arsenal on the front foot and this is what can happen to you.
Arsenal love space whether it’s handed to them by City sky blue or PSV red and white. Here there were acres of it and Arsenal gobbled it up. They were clinical, ruthless and, perhaps as importantly, looked as though they were actually enjoying themselves once more.
Young winger Ethan Nwaneri particularly revelled in it. He was fabulous down the right. Martin Odegaard loved it, too, and scored two second half goals. But it was a night of expression for all of Mikel Arteta’s players who badly needed something to lift them from recent disappointments and now know at least that a place in the last eight of the Champions League will be theirs. From this point on in European competition, anything really can happen.
PSV were embarrassing really and they should feel that deeply. This was a really bad night for Peter Bosz and his players but also for Dutch football. Some of the PSV supporters looked shamefaced at 5-1. When the sixth went in, many of them went home. There was a fancy dress carnival finishing up outside and some of the locals must have wished they had come here in disguise.
We do not seek to take anything away from Arsenal. They came here to Holland under great pressure and knew that a failure to navigate through a tie that concludes next week would have left a once-promising season in tatters. So this performance and result reflects incredibly well on them.
Martin Odegaard scored twice as Arsenal put six past PSV in a rampant display by the Gunners
Teenager Ethan Nwaneri scored again in another impressive Champions League performance
PSV Eindhoven were blown away at Philips Stadion and will need a miracle in the second leg
Nevertheless, they must wish they could face Premier League teams as utterly guileless as this every week. Before the game Arteta had chosen not to get involved in the debate about how Arsenal’s opponents would approach this evening but suggestions that PSV would get on the front foot and leave themselves open in behind were entirely born out.
In an engrossing and entertaining opening half, the Dutch team went blow for blow with Arsenal and pretty much got knocked out of the game and eventually the tie.
Maybe Bosz had got drawn in to all the talk about Arsenal not having a centre forward. Once again, Arteta plugged that gap with Mikel Merino. Whatever the case, Arsenal could have played with two of their tea boys up front here at the Philips Stadium and still scored a bundle.
There was one moment of contention in a first half that went a long way to deciding things. After 25 minutes, Arsenal’s Myles Lewis-Skelly should have been sent off for a second yellow card after he was pulled up for hacking down Richard Ledezma. Why he wasn’t cautioned again only the Spanish referee will know.
Arsenal were already two goals up by then, mind. PSV had struck the bar through Ryan Flamingo early on – he should have scored – but then Arsenal suckered them twice down the left in the 18th and 21st minutes. The first combination was Declan Rice to Jurrien Timber at the far post for a simple header. The second was Lewis-Skelly to Nwaneri along the floor to the near. Both dazzlingly effective.
PSV kept moving forwards and as such kept leaving holes. Merino scored the third in the 31st minute after Ledezma inexplicably failed to clear the ball and, during the VAR check that followed, Arteta sensibly removed Lewis-Skelly before the referee did the job for him.
The game felt over and PSV’s comeback was no more than a flicker. Luuk de Jong converted a penalty before half-time after Thomas Partey stupidly pulled an opponent by the neck and then, with an eager crowd energised again, Guus Til headed a good chance over.
But that was as good as it got. The half-time team talk in the home dressing room must have been about the next goal but the problem was that Arsenal scored two of them within three minutes of the restart.
Jurrien Timber had opened the scoring with a header following a great Declan Rice cross
Noa Lang looked like he had given PSV a lifeline with a thunderous penalty to make it 3-1
Odegaard scored the first of two goals within 99 seconds at the start of a rampant second half
Leandro Trossard dinked Walter Benitez brilliantly from close range to complete the double salvo
After Odegaard struck his second of the game Riccardo Calafiori made it 7-1 on 84 minutes
Odegaard was first to benefit as young Nwaneri put a step-over on Tyrell Malacia – once of Manchester United of course – to cross low. Goalkeeper Walter Benitez could have done anything other than what he did and it would have been a better option. But his weak push at the ball opened the door to Odegaard and with Rice literally pointing the way, he slipped it into the empty net.
Arsenal then struck again within a minute as PSV fell apart. Leandro Trossard played a back heel to Riccardo Caliafori on the left side and was allowed to run unchecked 20 yards to take the return pass and beat Benitez as he came out to narrow the angle.
Up in the gods – herded rather primitively behind Perspex – Arsenal’s travelling supporters celebrated having their team back.
PSV remained watchable with the ball and David Raya saved sharply from Ivan Perisic and De Jong. But there were now goals in this whenever Arsenal felt like it. When they broke there were spaces and numerical overloads everywhere. By the end Odegaard had spanked one in from 22 yards after galloping unchecked through the middle and had also played a sweet pass through for Caliafiori to dribble a shot across Benitez and into the corner.
Arsenal had come here to win but would not have expected this. The only question now is whether the effects are more than short-term. They will face one of the Madrid teams in the last eight of this competition and may have a couple of players back by then. A reason to hope, at least.