By ISAAN KHAN, REPORTER
Published: 17:15 EST, 10 December 2025 | Updated: 17:26 EST, 10 December 2025
The Arsenal backline often resembles a game of Tetris these days.
A different makeshift piece is shunted into a back-four slot each week to fill a defence badly affected by injury.
That figure happened to be Christian Norgaard this evening — but the Gunners still brushed aside Club Brugge, Noni Madueke leading the charge.
The winger shrugged off one player, skipped past a few others, before unloading a powerful long-range strike which skimmed in off the bar.
And then within two minutes of the restart, Madueke nodded home Martin Zubimendi’s cross.
The gloss was added by Gabriel Martinelli, becoming the first-ever Arsenal player to score in five consecutive Champions League matches.
Arsenal beat Club Brugge 3-0 in the Champions League on Wednesday evening in Belgium
The win left the Gunners top of the Champions League table, but the injuries keep on coming
It kept the north London club as the only unbeaten side in this season’s competition at six wins from six games.
Very impressive, yes, but the result also virtually secured their spot in the top eight, which would see Mikel Arteta’s men go straight through to the last-16 and avoid the play-off round.
In the context of injuries, missing that extra round is so crucial for a club who are at their barebones at the back.
Daily Mail Sport's ISAAN KHAN was at the Jan Breydel Stadium and he has picked out some key talking points from the game.
Norgaard steps up as injury crisis worsens
The matter of injuries grows more concerning by the day at Arsenal.
Tuesday’s injury toll had reached six, excluding Declan Rice’s omission for illness.
That rose to seven on the morning of this match with Jurrien Timber, who had travelled with the team, didn't make the matchday squad due to a ‘kick’.
Riccardo Calafiori was also suffering with an unspecified knock, but still made the bench as a precaution for if needs must.
That left Norgaard to start at centre back for the first time at club level since May 17, 2021, a 1-0 defeat for Brentford against Bournemouth in a Championship play-off semi-final first-leg.
He was sharp on the ball in passing and stepped up accordingly, the Dane making a case for himself to fill in at the back in future.
Norgaard had a calmness on the ball and didn’t shy from tackles, but it was his ability to get on with the task at hand in a position which he is unaccustomed which impressed.
That was particularly the case in scenarios where the Brugge forward line caught Myles Lewis-Skelly out of position.
Amid the Gunners' defensive crisis, Christian Norgaard played at centre back but he impressed
Club Brugge 0-3 Arsenal - match facts
CLUB BRUGGE (4-2-3-1): Van den Heuvel 5.5; Siquet 6 (Meijer 67 5.5), Ordonez 5.5, Mechele 6, Seys 6 (Sabbe 74 6); Stankovic 6.5, Onyedika 6 (Vetlesen 74 6); Carlos Forbs 6 (Diakhon 83), Vanaken 6, Tzolis 6.5; Tresoldi 5.5 (Furo 67 6).
Goals: None
Booked: None
Manager: Ivan Leko 5.5.
ARSENAL (4-3-3): Raya 6.5; White 6.5 (Salmon 83), Norgaard 6.5, Hincapie 6.5 (Calafiori 63), Lewis-Skelly 5.5; Odegaard 6 (Nwaneri 72, 6), Zubimendi 6.5, Merino 6.5; Madueke 8 (Saka 71, 6.5), Gyokeres 5.5 (Jesus 62, 6.5), Martinelli 7.
Goals: Madueke 25 + 47, Martinelli 56.
Booked: White, Norgaard.
Manager: Mikel Arteta 7.
Referee: Sven Jablonski 6.
How Ethan Nwaneri can learn from Gabriel Martinelli
What a turnaround Martinelli has made, using the Champions League to springboard his Arsenal fortunes.
It was only in August when there were talks of the player being sold, and earlier this season he found himself on the periphery because of Madueke and Leandro Trossard’s exploits.
Before and after his strike from outside the area, he moved with vim and energy to progress play forward. Gone are those timid back-passes which were a feature in times gone by. With the options Arsenal have, he can’t afford to take the safe option.
Take Madueke, for example, who is a frightening prospect for defenders because of his uncompromising runs at them. He looks in one direction - and that’s forward. It allows the likes of Bukayo Saka a rest, something Arteta has struggled to do in previous seasons.
Yet, after these recent showings, whether he is to start or come off the bench as a ‘finisher’, Martinelli has an important role to play for the Gunners.
It is an important case study which Ethan Nwaneri can learn from, having slid way down Arteta’s pecking order.
The 18-year-old signed a five-year contract in August, with the north London club eager to tie down one of their most-promising starlets from the Hale End academy.
Gabriel Martinelli became the first Arsenal player to score in five consecutive Champions League matches
Martinelli has changed his fortunes with European football, but Ethan Nwaneri is struggling
His rise had been rapid. Last season, the attacker made his first Premier League and Champions League starts, shone in the Carabao Cup, while scoring across all three competitions.
He won man of the match in January against Girona for good measure, capping his first European start with an impressive finish from outside the area.
The way he shimmied past a couple of the opposition defenders, before fizzing the ball into the bottom-left corner, was Saka-esque in execution.
Yet, 12 months on, Nwaneri is struggling to make the starting line-up, even in games such as this where Arteta made five changes from the side that lost to Aston Villa on Saturday.
Taking a page out of Martinelli’s book, though, can do Nwaneri no harm. He’s only 18, and time is on his side.