The crazy thing was that Atlético Madrid were well in this Champions League match until the 57th minute. Diego Simeone’s team had defended robustly. They had just hit the crossbar through Julián Alvarez. But then they were not, and it was the speed and brutality with which Arsenal moved the game away from them that took the breath.
There were more set-piece goals, inevitably – for the breakthrough and No 4. It was Declan Rice to Gabriel Magalhães and then a repeat of the link‑up, the only difference being that Gabriel headed square for Viktor Gyökeres to bundle over the line rather than scoring himself. It feels as though nobody can contain Gabriel when he begins his runs and Rice delivers.
It was Gyökeres’s second of the evening, his first for 3-0 coming after he dug a breaking ball out of his feet to jam home with the help of a deflection off David Hancko. Gyökeres’s work-rate was tireless. This was his reward.
Gabriel Martinelli scored the second after a driving run from Myles Lewis-Skelly, Simeone kicking an imaginary ball in frustration as his players failed to check the progress of the Arsenal provider. Martinelli’s first-time side‑footed finish into the bottom corner was the moment of the night.
Atlético saw stars, four concessions in 13 minutes and it added up to a message from Arsenal to the rest of Europe. This was a step up for them in terms of the calibre of opponent after their opening games against Athletic Bilbao and Olympiakos. They stepped up, too. Another win, another clean sheet.
Arsenal have conceded just three goals in 12 matches in all competitions this season and there is a bulldozing quality to their game, a remorselessness. Increasingly, there is an inevitability. They did not care that it did not work for them in the first half or the early part of the second period. They kept on doing what they do. The belief is total.
Atlético had carried decent form to London, four wins and a draw in five matches, a run that included the 5-2 victory against Real Madrid. After they were breached, they sank without trace, looseness and errors costing them dearly.
If Gabriel was the standout performer – he had a couple of important defensive interventions, too – then Gyökeres was surely the grabbiest individual story. There had been an unforgiving spotlight beforehand on his barren run – nine blanks for Arsenal and Sweden; his longest drought since 2021-22. He had just three goals for the club that he joined over the summer from Sporting.
Gyökeres might not be the smoothest-looking No 9; he is more of a raging bull. And the aesthetics have been a part of the debate. He will care not one jot that his goals here were scruffy, both from close-range, the second bludgeoned in with a thigh. There was a release about the celebrations, and he was given a tremendous ovation from the crowd when he was substituted towards the end.
Arsenal brought the intensity, especially in the counter-press. Whenever they lost possession, there was a fury in their veins to regain it. For Atlético, it was the acid test of their composure on the ball and, until they subsided, it was possible to feel they had the technicians to cope. Pablo Barrios was easy on the eye in central midfield.
Arsenal had the better of the limited crop of first-half chances, their nearest miss coming early on. When Eberechi Eze made a move and shot from the edge of the area, the ball looped up off Hancko before dropping back down on to the crossbar. Rice could not convert the rebound.
Atlético’s big opening of the first period was in the 25th minute when Simeone’s son, Giuliano, caught David Raya in possession after the Arsenal goalkeeper had wandered all the way over to the side of the pitch. After a quick throw-in from Simeone Jr, Alvarez measured a shot for the far corner of the empty net from an unfavourable angle with Raya chasing back. He was narrowly off target.
Alvarez shimmered with menace. He had almost got away in the 29th minute after charging down a clearance and running from halfway only for Gabriel – with help from William Saliba – to snuff him out. It was an example of Arsenal’s hunger to keep the back door bolted. Early in the second half, Alvarez thought he had scored after a dart along the left‑hand edge of the area and a wonderful curled effort that beat Raya only to rattle the crossbar.
Arsenal’s response was extraordinary. Gyökeres was denied by Jan Oblak but it was not long before the home crowd were saluting the Rice-Gabriel set-piece combination for the opener. Again. Atlético tried to respond. Simeone Jr went close, denied by a Gabriel block after Alvarez’s pass inside Lewis-Skelly. Arsenal had further gears to find. How they moved through them.
