BREAKING: #Arsenal Are Through To 2023/2024 Champions League Last 16—–The Genius Media Nigeria reports that Arsenal FC are through to the knockout stages of the Champions League as group winners with a game to spare after this 6-0 hammering of Lens.
The Gunners ran in five goals – Kai Havertz, Gabriel Jesus, Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli and Martin Odegaard all scoring – in an astonishing first half, with a late Jorginho penalty signing off the demolition job.
Arsenal secured qualification to the UEFA Champions League knockout stage in some style as they hit Lens for six in a sublime performance at the Emirates Stadium.
Five goals came in a remarkable first half that saw Mikel Arteta’s side produce some of their very best attacking football to rip Lens apart time and again.
Kai Havertz opened the scoring as he turned a Gabriel Jesus flick-on home after 13 minutes, and it was the Brazilian who made it 2-0 eight minutes later with a lovely finish after cutting onto his right foot on the edge of the box.
Three goals came on a six-minute flurry as the ball bounced in off Bukayo Saka from close range to make it 3-0, before Gabriel Martinelli scored the pick of the bunch with a beautiful strike – cutting in from the left and curling a shot into the far bottom corner.
Martin Odegaard made the game safe as Arsenal continued to play breathtaking football, and a late Jorginho penalty added further gloss to a scoreline that secured the Gunners top spot in Group B with a game to spare, allowing Arteta to turn his attention back toward the Premier League going into a busy December.
TALKING POINT – ARSENAL SEND A WARNING ACROSS EUROPE
Lens are a decent side and beat Arsenal in the first meeting between these sides in the group stage. But the way they were dismantled by Arteta’s team at the Emirates would have been noted by all of the biggest teams across the continent.
This was the sort of display that earmarks a team as potential champions, and Arsenal showed that they have plenty of weapons in their armoury this season.
It was the impact of two summer signings that was particularly impressive, with Havertz and Declan Rice playing superbly in the middle of the park as they continue to take last season’s Premier League runners-up to a new level.
