Arsenal has successfully reached the quarterfinals of the Champions League after completing a 9-3 victory over AGGreate at PSV Eindhoven.
Gunners boss Mikel Arteta has won the first stage 7-1 and made seven changes on the side that pulled 1-1 with Manchester United last Sunday. Arteta gave opportunities to a number of fringe players and saw his side pulling 2-2 at the Emirates.
Oleksandr Zinchenko and Declan Rice were on goal for Arsenal, while the former Tottenham star Ivan Perisic and Couhaib Driouech scored comfort goals for PSV. Here Mirror Football looks into three players who have sent a message to Arteta …
Oleksandr Zinchenko
The Ukraine international had only made four starts for this game and can be seen almost exclusively as a left back since he came to Arsenal from Manchester City in 2022.
However, he got a rare start in midfield against PSV and made an almost immediate impact when he scored a brilliant long -distance effort in the sixth minute. It was Zinchenko's very first Champions League goal ever and it would be no surprise to see him more in midfield this season.
“It was a nice little ball inside to Oleksandr Zinchenko van Raheem Sterling and you just heard the crowd calling 'shoot' and he did,” said former Leeds -striker Lucy Ward on comment for TNTSport. “Perfect start for Arsenal.”
Raheem Sterling
After this season largely struggled this season, Sterling raised an impressive achievement when he helped both the goals of Zinchenko and Rice.
Sterling had only gathered two assists in his previous 22 performances for Arsenal and is sometimes devoid of trust. Despite a one-on-one miss late in the first half, the Display of Sterling against PSV was perhaps his best in an Arsenal shirt and hope Arteta that he can kick.
“Raheem Sterling tries to be positive every time he picks up the ball,” said Ward after Rice's goal. “He is doing really well to work that extra bit of space on the right and that enabled him to cross the ball for Declan Rice. It is a great cross – puts it on a plate for rice that would always be the first to reach it.”
Kieran Tierney
The third left back Arteta chose to start against PSV, Tierney had difficulty making a lot of impact while playing out of position as part of an improvised attack.
The injury problems of Arsenal have led Arteta to sometimes play forward this season, but he turned out to be largely ineffective because the vast majority of the success of the Gunners came on the right by Sterling.
It was only Tierney's second start of the season and the 27-year-old hopes to get his career back on track when he leaves Arsenal in the summer, with reports that claim that he has already signed a pre-contract agreement to return to Celtic when his current deal expires.
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