Arsenal, Ethan Nwaneri and Myles Lewis-Skelly all wrote their name into the Champions League record books in the Gunners’ 7-1 destruction of PSV Eindhoven.
Ahead of a seemingly taxing trip to the Netherlands for the first leg of their last-16 tie, Mikel Arteta‘s striker-less side had failed to score in back-to-back Premier League games and three of their last four matches across all tournaments.
Still missing all of Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli, Gabriel Jesus and Kai Havertz due to injury, optimism was not rife among Arsenal fans as the Gunners squared up to a team who had eliminated Juventus from the playoff round.
However, Arsenal defied their injury crisis and toothless domestic displays to all but guarantee a place in the quarter-finals, as Jurrien Timber, Nwaneri and Mikel Merino put them three goals to the good early doors.
A Noa Lang penalty briefly gave the hosts a glimmer of hope, which was quickly extinguished by Martin Odegaard and Leandro Trossard in the second half, before the former doubled his tally and slipped in Riccardo Calafiori for a spectacular seventh.
Arsenal achieved unprecedented Champions League feat in PSV thrashing
© Imago
Arsenal’s ruthless display saw them achieve an unprecedented Champions League feat, as they became the first side to score seven goals away from home in a knockout match in the competition.
The Gunners had previously scored seven times away from home in a European game, although that 7-0 thrashing of Standard Liege in November 1993 came in the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup.
The visitors’ second goal on the night was made in Hale End, as Lewis-Skelly delivered a low ball to the edge of the six-yard box through Ivan Perisic‘s legs, and Nwaneri comfortably got across his man to fire home into the roof of the net.
With 18-year-old Lewis-Skelly teeing up 17-year-old Nwaneri, the latter’s goal marked the first time in the history of the Champions League where two English teenagers have combined for a goal.
Unless PSV can complete the most astonishing comeback job at the Emirates next Wednesday, Arsenal can look forward to a quarter-final with either Real Madrid or Atletico Madrid; Los Blancos edged their first leg 2-1 on Tuesday evening.
Declan Rice heaps praise on Lewis-Skelly, Nwaneri after record-breaking goal
© Imago
While Lewis-Skelly was then taken off before half time after narrowly avoiding a second yellow card, teammate Declan Rice could hardly have been full of more praise for his teenage colleagues when speaking to Amazon Prime at full time.
“Top. He’s 17-years-old and he’s on the biggest stage,” Rice said of Nwaneri. “We’ve taken them [youngsters] under our wing and they deserve to be playing. You should see them train they way they have no fear and want to perform.
“Even if [Bukayo] Saka was here Ethan would be still getting minutes because he’s that good and works so hard in training. Same with Myles despite having to come off for the yellow card tonight, we have so many top young players.
“We were fluid, enthusiasm, the drive and hunger in the knockout phase of the Champions League. But we’ve been playing like this all season. We feel we’ve been playing well as a team sometimes we score five sometimes two sometimes we don’t score but tonight we did well. We had the opportunity to score more second half especially.”
Before welcoming PSV to the Emirates for what will most likely be a dead rubber next week, Arsenal head to Old Trafford on Sunday for a Premier League blockbuster against Manchester United.
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