A superb second half ensured Arsenal maintained a perfect start to the league phase of the Champions League by beating Lille 3-0 at the Emirates Stadium.
Defender Jurriën Timber broke the deadlock in the 64th minute. The Dutch defender made good use of Noni Madueke’s pass and lifted the ball over Berke Özer.
England forward Eberechi Eze connected with substitute Bukayo Saka’s low cross and rolled it past the onrushing Özer to make it 2-0. Saka then scored the final goal of the game himself, finishing low from Kai Havertz’s cutback.
Saka, Kai Havertz and captain Martin Ødegaard all came on after the break, and all three played a big part in the next two goals. After their earlier win at Napoli, it’s a second victory in the competition for last season’s beaten finalists.
This looks familiar. Arsenal won all eight of their league phase games last season before losing the final to Paris St-Germain, and they look like being hard to beat again at this stage.
Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta explained what went well for his team after a difficult first half.
“A few things tactically: one adjustment attacking, one defending. But especially, that we had to increase the technical level. At this level, the teams are really well organised. We gave simple ball;s away, bad touches mistimed things. When we delivered the ball into the box it wasn’t the right area so we get caught, especially delivering from the right and [Lille] transition on the left, as quoted by the Telegraph.
The moment we started to do that better, we could counter-press, and start to play into the opposition’s box, and with the quality that we have we made a real difference there”
