Arsenal have not been good enough domestically but Mikel Arteta knows the Champions League brings a different ‘energy’ and Declan Rice is channelling it.
Jurrien Timber described it as “a beautiful game to change the narrative” but he should have been more specific. Arsenal used an actual Champions League knockout game to change not just one general overall narrative, but each of them individually.
Martin Odegaard has faced increasing scrutiny since his return from injury, the belated answer to which was two goals and an assist in a glittering performance.
Arsenal, the team overreliant on set-pieces for their attacking threat and in painful need of a striker, secured a record-shattering win with seven goals from open play and a midfielder up front.
Myles Lewis-Skelly even proved he can avoid being sent off, although he really shouldn’t have escaped such punishment from an officiating team which cleverly managed to hide some curious incompetence behind the generational hopelessness of that PSV defence.
And Raheem Sterling quite dismally failed his only attempt at a dribble because some narratives are immutable.
“We have to score tomorrow. We have to win games,” was the follow-up line from the pre-match press conference from Timber, who proceeded to walk the walk with the opening goal in an absolute paddling.
The assist was delightful, a glorious cross held up at the back post by the tireless Declan Rice, who over an hour later at 6-1 was alone in rampaging into the opposition half from a PSV attack to give David Raya an outlet, ultimately winning his side a corner.
It felt almost performative, a message to his teammates about the constant need to maintain levels and standards, and to a borderline obsessed Frank Lampard about The Basics. But it was undoubtedly stirring and emotive, impossible not to admire.
Three minutes later, the left-back Riccardo Calafiori made a diagonal dart over to the right wing, timing his run impeccably and placing his finish exquisitely. It was Odegaard’s sublime pass, but a spiritual Rice assist.
In between, Arsenal were near irrepressible. Ethan Nwaneri was phenomenal, a ball of energy, skill and confidence on a stage to which he inexorably belongs. He and Lewis-Skelly combined for the first goal scored and assisted by English teenagers in Champions League history at one point, another milestone on an evening defined by them.
Calafiori officially secured the honour of Getting In On The Act as a substitute defender scoring a wonderful goal after popping up in a position he had no right to be in, but before then it was a relatively close contest between Mikel Merino and Leandro Trossard. Arsenal have never had such abundant centre-forward options.
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It was the first time a team had scored seven goals or more away in a Champions League knockout game, the heaviest competitive – inverted commas may be necessary – home defeat in PSV’s history and only the second time they had conceded as many as seven goals in a game, and Arsenal’s biggest European away win in more than 31 years.
It also came after PSV hit the bar first, and was an often unnecessarily brutal reminder that while Arsenal have not been good enough often enough in the Premier League, their European form is formidable. Only Barcelona and Real Madrid have scored more goals per game in the tournament this season and Inter are alone in conceding fewer.
Mikel Arteta has spoken about how Arsenal are more “consistent” and “honest” in the Champions League and the difference is palpable.
“You feel it in the atmosphere, in the energy of the place,” he said this week. “It’s something else because it’s a competition you don’t play in weekly and you play in the moment where you’re in or out, and that gives you urgency and it gets the best out of you for sure.”
Since wrapping up the league phase with victory at Girona in January, Arsenal played five games in the Premier League and Carabao Cup and were essentially eliminated from both after scoring seven goals. As many in 90 minutes on their return to the Champions League changes the narrative alright.
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