By AFP
Arsenal stormed to a third successive Champions League victory by blowing away Atletico Madrid 4-0 thanks to a devastating second-half broadside at the Emirates Stadium.
What had been a compelling clash with little between the sides in the first period on Tuesday became an Arsenal rout, with goals by Gabriel, Gabriel Martinelli and a brace from Viktor Gyokeres leaving Diego Simeone’s side shell-shocked.
Shortly after Julian Alvarez hit the crossbar for the visitors, Gabriel broke the deadlock by heading in a Declan Rice free kick in the 57th minute.
Martinelli finished off a sweeping move seven minutes later, and Gyokeres then prodded his first goal of the night via a deflection as Arsenal ran riot, with the Swede ending a nine-game scoring drought for club and country.
Gyokeres then bundled in his second, as Atletico were again unable to deal with a set piece.
Victory extended Arsenal’s unbeaten run to nine games and put them on nine points in the group phase, well on the way to qualifying for the knockout phase.
Atletico have three points and will have to dust themselves down after their six-game unbeaten run in all competitions came to an abrupt end.
Holders PSG hit magnificent seven at Leverkusen
Paris Saint-Germain scored seven, Barcelona hit six, and Erling Haaland struck his 24th goal of the season on an action-packed night.
PSV Eindhoven routed Italian champions Napoli 6-2, while Inter Milan had a big win to maintain their own perfect starts in Europe.
It is defending champions PSG that lead the way at the top of the standings after a wild 7-2 win against Bayer Leverkusen in a match that saw both teams reduced to 10 men.
Barcelona’s 6-1 win against Olympiakos saw them bounce back from a loss to PSG at the start of the month.
Last season’s finalists Inter beat Union Saint-Gilloise by the same score.
Haaland’s goal helped Manchester City to a 2-0 win at Villarreal.
Fermin Lopez scored a hat-trick and Marcus Rashford hit two goals as Barcelona ran riot.
Barca took full advantage when the Greek champions went down to 10 men after a contentious red card for Santiago Hezze in the second half, scoring four goals to complete the rout.
It was Lopez’s first hat-trick of his career, with Lamine Yamal also on the scoresheet from the penalty spot.
Olympiakos had no answer when Hezze was shown a second yellow card in the 57th minute, despite replays appearing to show he did not make contact with Marc Casado, who was trying to pull him back.
Just three minutes earlier, the visitors had got back into the game at 2-1 after Ayoub El Kaabi’s penalty.
Two clinical finishes from Lopez had given Barcelona a 2-0 half-time lead. Then, with the extra man, the Spanish champions overwhelmed Olympiakos with four goals in 11 minutes – starting with Yamal’s spot kick.
Rashford, on loan from Manchester United, now has four goals in three games in the Champions League this season.
Kazakh team Kairat picked up their first point in European football’s elite club competition with a 0-0 draw against Pafos.
