Arsenal all but punch their ticket to Madrid: Why dominant Champions League win over PSV taught us little

Cruising to Madrid and the quarterfinals of the Champions League outside the back of a 7-1 win, where has this arsenal been in the last fourteen days? Do not play PSV Eindhoven.

Before the hurry to crown Ethan Nwaneri, to see signs of life of Martin Odegaard and to be thrown away by the finishing of this team, keep in mind that there are few or no opponents who plays Arsenal between now and the end of the season that are just as compulsory as this as this. Arsenal could not score against West Ham because Graham Potter made reasonable adjustments to limit the possibilities of his opponent in the right flank. Nottingham Forest perhaps fell back a center last week for the visit of the Gunners, but it is a team that is determined by their work outside of possession.

You wouldn’t say that about PSV. Writing was on the wall when Peter Bosz used his press conference yesterday to insist that: “I’m not going to change my playing style.” He may have claimed that his side would make adjustments. In addition to even more space in central areas than they had because of the competition phase, it was not immediately clear what that could be. The remarkable thing is that this team had tried to play their normal match against Arsenal last season. It has hit them by a margin of four goals.

The same tonight. It is one thing to defend man-to-man against Go to Go Touwe Eagles and Willem II-NOT necessary an effective approach to recent evidence-one when every opponent is larger, stronger and faster than you. Rarely has it been so easy for Odegaard or Declan Rice to breeze through midfield, nobody even thinks to close them until they reached the criminal court.

With the ball, PSV’s insisting on setting up urgent traps was impressive. A minute after Noa had been given the place on the scoreboard after an awkward mistake by Thomas Partey-Werden caught the hosts through their own corner flag on the right. It was all too easy for rice to steal possession and make a shot just wide.

It is not that PSV is necessarily a bad side. There were times in the attack where they really asked questions about David Raya’s ability to deal with crosses, where Gabriel had to defend with real muscularity. On the other hand, they could have had one or two more. They could also have let in a few more, the problems in their system only increased by their failures to do the base. When Arsenal attacked the left side of the box, there was enough time for winger for a long and full -back Tyrell Malacia to change position so that he defended the rear post and Jurrien Timber. Neither of them moved.

Although there were questions about an offside in the structure of the third, PSV had enough opportunities to defend with a little more muscle power before Ryan Flamingo fell instead of competing with Mikel Merino.

Arsenal at least benefited from the hospitality of PSV. Nwaneri in particular did not delay once if he could bend his crotch in a dangerous area in the sixth minute. The finish of his popper of a Myles Lewis-Skelly Cutback was a memory of why Mikel Arteta sees the center Vooruit in the future of the 17-year-old, the third youngest scorer in the history of Champions League.

Odegaard took the time to get started, but when the space opened for him in the second half, he fully operated it. A player who sometimes took too long this season to work the perfect shooting position for himself, was willing to let the margin fly a maximum of four, the ball that bends enough that Walter Benitez might feel some mitigation why he brought in a shot that flew above him. Towards the end, Prime Odegaard shone through, a beautiful through the ball with the outside of his boot, Riccardo Calafiori slipped for a Spits’s finish.

And perhaps the greatest value of this result for Arsenal is that it offers everyone the chance to calm down, not to come up with crazy solutions for stubborn problems such as Calafiori putting the middle. Arteta can plans a quarter -final plans against Real Madrid or Atletico, by the time that Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka may be back at the beginning of April.

A chance to breathe, plan ahead in the knowledge that there will be meaningful games in at least the penultimate month of the campaign. Not bad for what has occasionally felt like a season in which everything that can go wrong has gone wrong in an increasingly catacly -means. What did we also learn about Arsenal tonight? Only that they can still rise the goals when they play slower, technically inferior opposition that persisted with a system that does not fit remotely with the needs of the occasion. How often do they combat such a team?

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Aaaah, I see that they then play Manchester United.