Arsenal make Champions League record but Arteta wants trophies
Mikel Arteta suggested Arsenal wants trophies after they made a Champions League record by thrashing PSV Eindhoven, 7-1.
Visit Sportsmania for more football news and other updates.
Check out M88 Mansion’s best offers here.
Arsenal make Champions League record
The 7-1 victory made Arsenal the first away team in Champions League history to score that many goals in a knockout stage match.
Goals from Jurrien Timber, Ethan Nwaneri, Mikel Merino, Leandro Trossard, and Martin Odegaard put the Gunners 5-1 up after just 48 minutes.
Odegaard struck again before Riccardo Calafiori sealed the deal, handing PSV the joint-heaviest defeat in their 112-year history.
Despite their record-setting performance in the European competition, Arteta said setting landmarks is not actually the team’s goal.
“It’s very significant but it’s just to put yourself in a really strong position to go through to the next round,” he said.
“That’s it; that’s the reality. To put landmarks, we have to really make it to a very different level. But obviously, this team has done a lot that hasn’t been done in many, many years or in the history of the club. Which means a lot, but that’s not what we want.”
Gunners stepped up
Arsenal had scored just twice in their last four matches.
It was impressive for Arteta’s side to score seven times against PSV, especially considering the absence of attacking quartet Kai Havertz, Gabriel Jesus, Bukayo Saka, and Gabriel Martinelli due to injury.
“That’s the beauty of it, nobody in this room, if I give you an envelope and say, ‘can you predict what’s going to happen tomorrow and who is going to score,’ [nobody would say 7-1] that’s the beauty of football,” Arteta said.
“In football, and you do very well today, put your head down, be humble, analyse how you can improve. Because the next game is going to be completely different to this one, and nobody can write the script, unfortunately, even if we would like to.”
