A game of two halves
Tuesday's Champions League win over French side Lille was a classic example of the old football cliché, a game of two halves.
Arsenal came into the game having lost just one of their last 25 home matches in major European competition, winning eighteen and drawing six and they had every reason to be optimistic of shutting their French counterparts out as from those 25 matches they managed 18 clean sheets at the Emirates Stadium. But, like in the previous league matches against Brighton and Leeds, Arsenal laboured in the first 20 minutes of the first half and failed to take advantage of the chances that Jurrien Timber created for Bruno Guimaraes and Mikel Merino, yet despite those near misses it was Lille's Japanese striker, Ayase Ueda who had the ball in the net on 21 minutes, but it was correctly ruled out by VAR for offside.
Mikel Arteta made five changes to the line-up that defeated Leeds Utd at the weekend with Bruno Guimaraes, Jurrien Timber, Mikel Merino, Viktor Gyokeres and Eberechi Eze all starting and Bukayo Saka, Kai Havertz, Riccardo Calafiori, Martin Odegaard and Ben White dropping to the bench. And as with many Champions League games in the past, Arsenal had to be patient and wait for the right opportunity to open up their opponent and the supporters thought they had achieved this just before half time as firstly, Eze then Guimaraes seen their chances spurned.
Turning up the temperature in N5 🔥 Highlights from our 3-0 win over Lille are now available 🎬 https://t.co/nvU26tcWzP
— Arsenal (@Arsenal) October 14, 2026
Timber masterclass
The second half seen the Gunners ramp up the pressure on Lille and their dominance told on 64 minutes when a clever pass from Noni Madueke reached Timber inside the box, he exhibited a brilliant touch to drag the ball into his path then calmly chipped the ball over goalkeeper Ozer to score the opener.
The pressure was off now and Arsenal with the introduction of Kai Havertz, Martin Odegaard and Saka clicked into gear. Firstly Saka teed up Eze who added the second less than two minutes after Timber's goal and then barely five minutes had elapsed when Saka himself put the seal on the game with a delightful finish into the bottom corner.
Saka with that goal has become the second highest European goalscorer at the club on 19 goals with only the legendary Thierry Henry scoring more. Another Gunner celebrating a milestone last night was goalkeeper, David Raya who equalled David Seaman’s Champions League goalkeping appearance record of 38 games. Former Arsenal star, Oliver Giroud came on as a late substitute for Lille to a great welcome from the Arsenal fans but couldn't affect the outcome and it ended 3-0 to Arsenal and two wins from two in this years campaign.
THREE GOALS. THREE POINTS. pic.twitter.com/TJof9JJ1jH
— Arsenal (@Arsenal) October 13, 2026
Arteta
Asked about the impact of the substitutes in the game in his post match interview, Mikel Arteta said:
"We had moments in the game - in the first half especially- in certain moments we arrived in very dangerous positions with a lot of advantage. Our technical quality wasn’t good enough to deliver moments of real threat, and especially to be able to sustain attacks so well in certain transitions. The moment we made a change in terms of positions at half-time, our technical level increased, and we attacked the spaces where we thought we could hurt them. It was a joy to watch, the three goals were unbelievable, the connections, the timings, the quality they delivered to score. Three different players, and more who participated in those goals, so overall, I’m very, very happy."
"The ones that finished the game were extraordinary" Mikel Arteta reflects on Arsenal's 3-0 victory v Lille 👏 🎙️ @LiamMacdevitt | 📺 Stream on TNT Sports & HBO Max: https://t.co/WPrcA5ZrQ1 https://t.co/NNQbp00b8X
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) October 13, 2026
Up Next
Next up for Arsenal is a visit to the City Ground next Sunday to face Nottingham Forest in the Premier League followed by a tricky away fixture in the Champions League against Bayern Munich on Wednesday.
