Revenge is a dish best served cold, which could be the perfect explanation for Arsenal’s 6-0 win over Lens in the Champions League on Wednesday night.
Arsenal were defeated by Lens in France on matchday 2 of the 2023–24 Champions League campaign at Stade Bollaert-Delelis. The French team defeated them 2-1. That loss devastated a lot of Gooners. How could a team like Lens, without disparaging them, overcome Arsenal when the North London club is stronger on paper?
Arsenal responded to their Champions League loss to Lens with two strong wins over Sevilla (at home and away). They defeated Sevilla 2-1 in Spain before defeating them 2-0 at the Emirates.
Arsenal were poised to advance to the round of 16 after picking up 6 points from Sevilla and 3 against PSV on Match Day 1 by not losing to Lens on Wednesday night.
But the Gunners were not satisfied with not losing to Lens; according to William Saliba, all they wanted was to mercilessly beat Lens and avenge their loss to them in October. So in the end, it was perfect retaliation to beat Lens 6-0, with five of the goals coming before halftime, according to Saliba, who said in L’Equipe, “We’re very happy. They beat us in the reverse fixture, so we knew they were a very good side. We wanted to get at them early tonight. We were efficient in front of goal, and we defended well, so it was a great performance.
“We knew they weren’t an easy team to face; they showed us that at their place. We can be proud of what we’ve done this evening.
“When I come back to France, I want to win, so it left a bitter taste in the mouth. But today we won, qualified, and finished top of the group. We want to finish the group stage in the best way possible against PSV.
“When a team beats you, you want to beat them — and that’s what we’ve done tonight. We rewatched the tapes from the first game: what we did well, what we didn’t. Today, it worked well. We had the fortune of playing at home, so that was easier for us.”
The current Arsenal team is on another level, and if no one is betting on them to cause havoc in the Champions League knockout stages, I will. Teams should be afraid of meeting us because we mean business.
Sam P
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Congrats to those who brought this guy to North London such a lovely guy always giving is best to the team arsenal only needs to sign a goal scoring striker to complete the jigsaw puzzle of the premier League.
That attitude can work especially well in the UCL but I hope it won’t make them confident of a repeat performance against better competition until AFTER the playing of the first leg of a tie.