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In the first leg of the UEFA Champions League (UCL) Round of 16, Arsenal thumped PSV Eindhoven 7-1 at the Philips Stadion, to take more than a step forward to making the quarter-finals of the competition. After a convincing victory, Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta was quite pleased about the performance of his players, stating that it gives them “joy and confidence and belief”, especially after they weren’t able to win their last two Premier League matches.
During the one-sided UCL contest played in the Netherlands, Arsenal had six different goal-scorers on the night, with Martin Odegaard scoring a brace in the second half. The other five players, including Jurrien Timber, Ethan Nwaneri, Mikel Merino, Leandro Trossard, and Riccardo Calafiori found their name on the scoresheet once for Arsenal, while for PSV Eindhoven, Noa Lang scored a penalty in the first half.
In the post-match chat, Mikel Arteta, the manager of Arsenal, was all praises for his players, talking about how this big win will fuel them, but at the same time, they can’t get carried away. He was quoted as saying, as per BBC Sport, “For sure, it's something that hasn't been done, so great to be part of that. But as a team we want to achieve many other things that are far more important than that.”
“The happiest thing is we are in a very strong position to go to the next round, which is where we want to be. But there's still a job to do in London in a week's time,” he added. Moreover, this victory over PSV Eindhoven could be a huge confidence booster for Arsenal in the remainder of their campaign, especially after they weren’t able to defeat Nottingham Forest and West Ham in the Premier League recently.
