Arsenal Shows No Mercy

Could this be the year that Arsenal puts it all together? It's only October, and the Gunners aren't perfect, but Mikel Arteta's side is better than it has ever been under the Spaniard. Even with a loss to Liverpool in the Premier League and a late draw against Manchester City, Arsenal has looked every bit the side that it dreamed of being after spending big this summer get over the hump. The club didn't exactly need a singular game to announce itself as one of the big contenders for trophies this year, but Tuesday's Champions League match against Atlético Madrid served that purpose, as the Gunners shook off a languid first half to wallop the Spanish side 4-0, leaving no doubt that this Arsenal is ready to compete for everything.

It took Arsenal a while to warm up on Tuesday, which is fair given the opposition. In contrast to what we've come to expect from Diego Simeone's Atlético teams, Los Colchoneros are actually quite attacking-minded, and have already put up some gaudy scorelines in this young season (5-1 against Frankfurt the last time out in the Champions League, and a famous 5-2 thrashing of Real Madrid). That doesn't mean Simeone is throwing caution to the wind, and heading into the North London fortress, where Arsenal so rarely loses, made the Argentine dust off some of his old tricks.

The first half of Tuesday's match was what detractors of both managers' styles of play might have been expecting: Atlético hunkered down quite a bit, and Arsenal seemed a tad lost in figuring out how to attack efficiently. Sure, the hosts had nine shots in the first 45 minutes, but only one really threatened Jan Oblak. Atlético didn't put up much resistance going the other way, though it had more of the ball than it usually does when setting up roadblocks up and down the field (the possession split was just 55-45 in Arsenal's favor). Under Arteta, Arsenal specializes in winning these types of games; the Gunners have the best defensive setup in Europe, and their set-piece dominance means they are always only a corner away from nabbing the one goal that usually means victory.

But that expected script only held for the opening 45 minutes. The second half was Arsenal at its horror monster best, a roused beast that can score from any set piece and through any player. Turning a mild 0-0 halftime draw into a 4-0 thrashing takes everyone playing at maximum overdrive, and Atlético simply had no answers for Arsenal's physicality and finesse. I don't think I've ever seen a Simeone side capitulate so thoroughly before, but as he said after the match, Arsenal is "the best team we've faced this season," and it showed. It started 12 minutes after the break, from a set piece, of course. Arsenal center back Gabriel more than earns his place in the team with his excellent defending, but it's the way he combines that with his knack for converting set pieces that makes him such a potent force. Sure enough, in the 57th minute the Brazilian latched onto a typically fierce Declan Rice free-kick cross for the opener.

"Latched on" might be underselling it. Watch Gabriel again in that video. He finds the space between all of the Rojiblanco bodies at the edge of the box and tracks the cross like a wide receiver, before smashing in a header that left Oblak with no chance. (Rice, maybe the premier set-piece taker in the world right now, deserves credit for finding the exact right open space here.) You can try to blame the Atlético defense for not tracking Gabriel's run, but it was so perfectly timed that I'm not sure any defense would have stopped this one.

After the goal came the storm. Over the next 13 minutes, Arsenal scored three more times, and though it had already started to concede possession to a comeback-searching Atlético in those 13 minutes, there was no hope to be had here. What can you even do against this 64th-minute run from Myles Lewis-Skelly, a left back who gets the ball in the center circle and somehow manages to dribble past four Atleti defenders down the middle of the park? Nothing, really, except watch as the 19-year-old (19!) lays a pass off to Gabriel Martinelli, who hits a first-touch curler around Oblak and in off the post:

Even when Arsenal was sloppy, things worked out just fine. New signing Viktor Gyokeres had been on a long goal drought—going without one in nine games across all competitions—but he got back on the scoresheet with a three-minute brace that, while not the smoothest or most impressive, had to feel fantastic. Three minutes after Martinelli's second, another impressive Arsenal play down its left flank saw the Brazilian released by yet another great Rice ball, this time from open play. Martinelli out-raced Marcos Llorente to the ball and crossed it to a charging Eberechi Eze, who mishit a volley (or, if you want to be nice, hit a perfect pass) directly at Gyokeres. The Swede's back was to the goal, so he tried to turn and shoot with his right foot but instead the ball got caught up between his feet. No matter, though, as after a brief struggle, he did get just enough of that right foot to squirt the ball into the goal.

By that point, the game was well in hand, and Atlético had been run off the field on both ends; the three goals spoke for themselves, but the visitors didn't register a single shot on goal until the 77th minute. But there was still more to come from Arsenal. Rice—who would've been my choice for man of the match—teed up a corner to the far post in the 70th minute, and Gabriel—my second choice for man of the match—barreled onto it like a guided missile, delivering a precise header back toward the front of the goal, where Gyokeres—the officially named man of the match—and his hip were there to meet it. Again, not the most elegant of finishes from the big Swede, but I don't think anyone in (the red side of) North London gives a shit:

Tuesday's beatdown of a very good team bodes well for Arsenal for a variety of reasons. This seems to be the type of game that Arteta craves, even without taking into account the blowout scoreline. Arsenal is so hard to break down, and so good at set pieces, that it can keep itself in any match. But when the team can also weave in open-play goals like its second and third on Tuesday, the Gunners are, to use one of my favorite Britishisms, unplayable. I must note once more that this game was at home for Arsenal, where the side is both better and more fluid; away from North London, Arteta usually prefers to rely on defensive rigidity and moments of set piece magic, such as in its very late 2-1 win at Newcastle at the end of September.

This is all nitpicking of what has been the best side in England, and maybe in all of Europe, so far this season. If Gyokeres can get back into the goalscoring form that inspired Arsenal to make him its attacking centerpiece, and if the set pieces keep delivering, it'll be close to impossible to knock Arsenal out of any game. The Gunners seem to have sorted out the shortcomings that led to three straight second-place finishes in the Premier League, and Tuesday's match demonstrated that the team's progress has carried over to the Champions League. This is not to say Arsenal is a lock to do the major double this season, but no one on the continent seems better primed to mercilessly beat its way through the dual gauntlets in its path.