Mikel Arteta has just potentially seen the dream scenario emerge despite the fact Arsenal’s 2024/25 season looked likely to end with a whimper. Ahead of their Champions League last-16 first leg away at PSV on Tuesday, the Gunners had failed to score in three of their last four games which seemingly ended hopes for two trophies.
Last month, Arsenal were knocked out of the Carabao Cup by Newcastle United with five points also dropped in the Premier League title race against Liverpool after losing to West Ham United before then drawing to Nottingham Forest.
13 points now separates the two teams, which could see Arteta and Co. place all their focus on the Champions League. Arsenal’s first task on the road to Munich in the knockout stages came in the Netherlands against PSV Tuesday and it’s fair to say they passed it with flying colours.
Despite not scoring in three of their last four games, Arsenal beat their Dutch opponents 7-1 with Jurrien Timber, Ethan Nwaneri, Martin Odegaard, Mikel Merino, Leandro Trossard and Riccardo Calafiori all on target while Noa Lang was the scorer for PSV.
Considering the last few weeks and the likes of Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli missing through injury, that is a score line barely no one have expected. “No [I didn’t expect seven goals],” the Arsenal head coach admitted after initially joking he knew that sort of result was coming.
“That’s the beauty of it, nobody in this room, if I give you an envelope and say, can you predict what’s going to happen tomorrow and who is going to score, that’s the beauty of football. In football, and you do very well today, put your head down, be humble, analyse how you can improve.