Key events
Viktor Gyökeres, who slaked his nine-game scoring thirst tonight, speaks to Amazon Prime. “Feels amazing … it’s been a while … but we’ve been winning games … still a great couple of months … but as a striker it’s nice to score goals … it was great to score two … this win shows you where we are at … the first a perfect deflection! [laughs] … the chances will come … [my team-mates] are incredible … the spirit we have in the team is something else … it feels great of course … but we have to be on our toes … keep doing the right things … try to improve … there is always room for that.”
Gyökeres also says he’s spoken to new Sweden manager Graham Potter, and “it feels great to have him as coach of the national team.”
The Champions League table as it stands. Arsenal up to third, behind last season’s finalists, and flying.
Arsenal won ugly at Fulham last weekend; they won pretty tonight. Another two goals from set pieces, yes, but two were from open play, Gabriel Martinelli’s curler the evening’s highlight. Atop the Premier League, now flying in Europe, everything’s going their way right now. Though on that subject, the margins between success and failure are outrageously small in top-level sport, and Atleti will go away wondering how things might have panned out had Julián Alvarez’s fine long-range effort nestled in the top-right corner instead of hitting the bar … or if his speculative attempt to catch out David Raya on walkabout had bounced home. But a 4-0 rout is a 4-0 rout, and that’s a statement victory for Arsenal. Could this be the season this grand old club finally gets their hands on Old Big Ears? They’re not joint second favourites for nothing.
FULL TIME: Arsenal 4-0 Atlético Madrid
♩♬♭ Four-nil to the Ars-e-nal, four-nil to the Ars-e-nal … ♬ ♪ ♫
90 min +3: Nwaneri fancies getting on the scoresheet. He nearly dribbles through the middle, then curls a shot towards the bottom left that’s claimed by Oblak.
90 min +1: A state of mellow bliss descends on the Emirates. One or two pockets excepted, of course.
90 min: There will be three additional minutes.
89 min: Tell you what, though. There better be running hot water in the Atleti dressing room this evening, because if there isn’t, all bets will be off.
88 min: Atleti stroke it around, running down the clock. They just want to go home.
86 min: Baena scoops a cross in from a tight angle on the right. It loops over Raya but is stopped from dropping into the left-hand side of the net by Nwaneri’s clearing hook. Had the ball dropped into the goal, VAR would have surely taken a look at the cross, which might have curled out of play and back in before sailing over Raya’s head.
84 min: Gallagher is found in space on the right-hand edge of the Arsenal box. He aims for the top right, but Raya palms around the post. Then the whistle goes for Baena’s transgression earlier in the move. Absolutely nothing going right for Atleti now. Alvarez’s effort twanging off the crossbar at 0-0 seems an eternity ago.
83 min: Nothing comes of the corner.
82 min: Ruggeri advances down the left and wins a corner off Timber. But before it can be taken, Gyökeres and Timber are replaced by White and Merino. A huge reception for Gyökeres as he departs. A weight off the striker’s mind after breaking his nine-game scoreless run with a brace.
81 min: No goal this time, as Hancko is bundled over in the box.
80 min: Gyökeres bustles down the left and wins a free kick. Rice to send it into the mixer.
79 min: The olés again. It’s party time in north London.
78 min: Almada has a dig from distance. Easy for Raya. The Atleti fire has pretty much been extinguished.
77 min: The home crowd start early with the olés. Any old excuse …
75 min: Le Normand is booked for taking out Gyökeres with a tackle from behind. “It occurs to me that Arteta’s Gunners aren’t a million miles away from the 2013-16 Atléti, which I tend to think of as ‘pure uncut Simeone’,” writes Kári Tulinius. “Even though they were built on the foundation of a rock-solid defense, they would routinely blow teams away. Once they got the opening goal, often from a set-piece, if the other side came on to them, they’d tear them to shreds.”
74 min: “I can only assume that Diego Simeone will get chummy with a vocal Arsenal fan right about now,” suggests Peter Oh. He’s currently staring at a spot exactly 1,000 yards ahead of him, so he’s not spoiling for a fight yet. But give it time.
73 min: Arsenal can put their feet up now, and make a triple change. Gabriel, Eze and Zubimendi make way for Mosquera, Norgaard and Nwaneri.
72 min: That’s four goals in 14 minutes. Atleti respond by replacing Simeone and Sørolth with Almada and Griezmann.
GOAL! Arsenal 4-0 Atlético Madrid (Gyökeres 70)
Arsenal win a corner down the left. Rice loops it to the far post. Gabriel wins a header at the far post, sending the ball back across the face of goal. Gyökeres, racing in from the left, bundles home. Arsenal are rampant, but Atleti have fallen apart.
69 min: The home fans dip into their songbook again. Classic section once more. ♩♬♭ Are you Tottenham in disguise? ♬ ♪ ♫
GOAL! Arsenal 3-0 Atlético Madrid (Gyökeres 67)
Make it three in 11! Martinelli is sent flying down the left. He crosses. Eze shoots. Blocked. The ball drops to Gyökeres, who tries to force the ball into the bottom right. It deflects off Hancko and into the bottom left. Scruffy as hell, but that’s broken his goal drought, so he won’t care one jot.
66 min: Arsenal have really exploded into life here. They’d been arguably second best since the start of the second half, but suddenly woke from their slumber and look to have put Atleti away with two goals in eight minutes!
GOAL! Arsenal 2-0 Atlético Madrid (Martinelli 64)
Arsenal can score from set pieces, Arsenal can score from open play! Lewis-Skelly dribbles hard down the middle, drawing a few purple shirts before slipping a pass down the inside-left channel for Martinelli, who opens his body and steers a glorious first-time shot across Oblak and into the bottom-right corner. The Emirates erupts!
63 min: Atletico make a triple change. Koke, Gonzalez and Gimenez are replaced by Naena, Ruggeri and Gallagher.
62 min: Simeone slips Llorente into space down the right. Llorente cuts a cross back for Hancko, who from 12 yards powers a header just wide of the top-right corner. Raya planted.
60 min: One corner leads to another, and that leads to nothing. Meanwhile the home crowd, who had become a little pensive before the goal, flick to the classic section of their songbook: ♩♬♭ One-nil to the Ars-e-nal, one-nil to the Ars-e-nal … ♬ ♪ ♫
58 min: That’s Arsenal’s ninth set-piece goal of the season. But Atleti nearly cancel it out immediately, Simeone scampering onto Alvarez’s pass down the inside-right and taking a shot from a tight angle that’s deflected out for a corner. The man making that defensive intervention? Gabriel, the main man at both ends right now.
GOAL! Arsenal 1-0 Atlético Madrid (Gabriel 57)
Rice swings the free kick in from the left touchline. Gabriel times his run down the middle, through a crowd of players, and steers a header into the bottom left from six yards. The delivery was so good he couldn’t miss!
56 min: Llorente flips Martinelli aggressively to the floor out on the left flank. Mikel Arteta not happy. But it’s just a free kick. Everyone lines up on the edge of the Atleti area waiting for Rice to deliver, and …
54 min: Zubimendi swivels and flicks a pass down the inside-left channel for Gyökeres, who extends a leg in the hope of flipping the ball past Oblak. But the keeper throws a classic Peter Schmeichel shape and blocks. Fine play all round.
52 min: Up the other end, another penalty claim, as Koke nips in ahead of Lewis-Skelly down the right, feels a slight brush from behind, and goes down hard. The referee’s not falling for the grift.
51 min: Gyökeres wedges a cross in from the right. It hits the hand of Giménez, so a penalty claim is made. But the defender was standing right next to the striker, with his arms and hands tucked into his belly, and he might have been outside the box anyway. So no.
50 min: A free kick for Atleti out on the right. Alvarez whips it low to the near post, where Hancko hacks wide right. A couple of moments of danger in quick succession that have quietened the home crowd.
Alvarez hits the bar
49 min: Alvarez advances down the inside-left channel and curls a glorious effort towards the top right. Raya is beaten all ends up, but the ball pings off the top of the bar and away. A couple of inches lower, and that was one for the showreel.
47 min: Timber jinks down the right and wins a corner. It’s a fine run, past three defenders. Le Normand one man too many. Sørloth heads Saka’s corner clear.
46 min: Alvarez dribbles into the Arsenal box from the right, and thinks about shooting. He doesn’t, though, and is eventually crowded out. For a second there, an opportunity presented itself for the striker.
Atleti get the second half started. No changes.
Half-time entertainment. Your Champions League round-up, folks, to be updated as and when. Already containing some hot-off-the-press news of a good evening for Marcus Rashford.
HALF TIME: Arsenal 0-0 Atlético Madrid
Arsenal have hit the bar; Atleti have missed an open goal. Neither were exactly gilt-edged chances. Both teams have been battling hard, no quarter given, which augurs well for some second-half entertainment, one way or another.
45 min +1: Zubamendi crosses from the right. Martinelli eyebrows over the bar from ten yards.
45 min: Alvarez sends the resulting free kick sailing harmlessly wide right. There will be one minute of additional time.
44 min: Rice clips Le Normand from behind as the Atleti defender brings down a high ball 30 yards from the Arsenal goal. Having recently clattered Llorente further upfield, he’s slightly fortunate not to go into the book. Another one may test the referee’s patience.
42 min: A slight sense of frustration in the crowd now, with Arsenal no longer as dominant as they were during the early exchanges.
40 min: Eze and Rice busy themselves down the left flank but Atleti hold their shape and the move peters out.
38 min: Zubimendi is booked for his third cynical nibble from behind in as many minutes. That means he’ll be suspended for Arsenal’s next Champions League fixture at Slavia Prague.
Martinelli goal disallowed
36 min: Saka dribbles into the box from the right. He gets past Giménez with ease and fires a low cross into the six-yard box. Martinelli turns home at the far post, but he’s gone way too early and is clearly offside. Up goes the flag.
