PSV 1-7 Arsenal: Gunners thump Dutch side to put one foot in the Champions League quarter-finals with a ruthless display
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.
