Mikel Arteta with Bukayo Saka - Getty
Mikel Arteta with Bukayo Saka - Getty
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Arsenal beat Lille 3-0 at the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday night. The result made it two wins from two in this season’s Champions League for the reigning Premier League champions, who had also won away at Napoli on matchday one.
The scoreline hides how the first hour went. Lille were well organised and had a goal ruled out for offside in the 23rd minute. Arsenal went in at half-time without a goal, as they have in each of their last five games in the Premier League and Champions League.
Jurrien Timber broke the deadlock in the 64th minute. He collected a pass from Noni Madueke and lofted the ball over Lille goalkeeper Berke Ozer.
Mikel Arteta then made a triple change, and the game turned. One of the players who came on had been the subject of a challenge from the manager the day before.
Arteta is a demanding manager, and his players know it. Before the game, he was asked about Bukayo Saka and whether the winger should target another 20-goal season.
“No, I think the numbers should go to score two or three per game,” Arteta told reporters. “That’s it. That’s the mindset.”
He said a season-long target was the wrong way to think. “That’s not going to take you there,” he said.
Saka was named among the substitutes. Arteta later explained that the winger had been ill and was not ready to start.
Saka replaced Madueke after Timber’s goal, along with Kai Havertz and Martin Odegaard.
Within two minutes, Saka pulled the ball back for Eberechi Eze, who stroked it into the bottom-right corner to make it 2-0.
Four minutes after that, Saka curled in the third himself, finishing a move in which Havertz and Odegaard were heavily involved. It was his fourth goal of the season for Arsenal.
Arteta was asked afterwards whether his words had worked. He replied, as per Arsenal.com: “I’m very happy and welcome if that’s the case. He wasn’t feeling too good yesterday and today because he had a sort of illness; he wasn’t ready to start, but he was really keen to contribute to the team if it was needed. He came on, had a real impact, with real quality.”
He also described what he said to Saka after the press conference.
“After the press conference, I went, and he was on the massage table, and I said: ‘Bukayo, I just killed you in the press conference, good luck tomorrow!’ And he was laughing.”
Arteta said the two understand each other.
“He knows me. He knows we have these kinds of things, and he takes it because he wants to be the best version of himself. In order to do that, you have to set big objectives and challenges and try to raise them, by working and being consistent. He has the ability to do it.”
Saka has nine Champions League assists for Arsenal. Only Thierry Henry (16) and Cesc Fàbregas (14) have more. He is also the fifth Arsenal player to score and assist as a substitute in a Champions League match.
His 19 goals in major European competition for the club are second only to Henry’s 42.
Arsenal have now won 14 consecutive group-stage or league-phase games in the Champions League, keeping nine clean sheets in that run.
David Raya made his 38th European appearance for Arsenal. That equals the club record for a goalkeeper, held by David Seaman.
Lille did not register a shot on target. That has happened to them only once before in the Champions League since 2003/04, in October 2012 against Bayern Munich.
They have lost their last three Champions League games and each of their last eight against English clubs. After defeats by Real Betis and Arsenal, they have no points from two games.
Former Arsenal striker Olivier Giroud came on late for Lille. At 40 years and 13 days, he became the first French player aged 40 or over to play in the Champions League. Arsenal’s Max Dowman also made another late appearance.
Arsenal travel to Bayern Munich on Wednesday 21 October for their next Champions League game.