The scary truth about Arsenal's thrashing of Atletico Madrid | OneFootball

Arsenal are the envy of Europe... and they can get even better

Your matchday briefing on Arsenal, featuring team news and expert analysis from Simon Collings

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On a night when Arsenal flexed their muscles and sent a message to the rest of Europe, it was hard to decide what was the most impressive aspect of this win over Atletico Madrid.

All of that will have made the rest of the sides in this season’s Champions League sit up and take notice.

But most worrying for them will be the fact that Arsenal put in a performance like this against Atletico with Gabriel Jesus, Kai Havertz, Martin Odegaard and Noni Madueke all out injured.

The Gunners’ summer spending spree has left them with an enviable level of depth that few in Europe can match.

Arteta will not want fans to get carried away - after all, it is not even the end of October yet - but it is hard for supporters not to be excited about what lies ahead.

Arsenal are the envy of Europe

Arsenal FC via Getty Images

Arsenal are top of the Premier League, and this win over Atletico kept up their perfect start to the Champions League.

“I think the overall performance was incredible,” said Arteta. “The way we dominated and we earned the right to win it and then the efficiency, which at this level in the Champions League is something key.”

This victory was a ruthless demonstration of how good Arsenal can be when everything clicks.

Defensively, they restricted Atletico to just one shot on target, and Julian Alvarez, who hit the crossbar, was the only player to trouble them.

Arsenal’s set-pieces were at their best. Other clubs’ fans may mock the Gunners for their perceived reliance on them, but their value cannot be underestimated.

Rice’s free-kick for Gabriel’s opening goal was impossible to defend, such was the speed and curve on the ball.

It opened the game up and, from there, the floodgates opened as Myles Lewis-Skelly drove through the middle of Atletico to set up Gabriel Martinelli for Arsenal’s second.

The run from Lewis-Skelly was the teenager at his destructive best, carrying the ball nearly 40 yards.

Martinelli’s finish was equally good, and the biggest compliment you could pay the Brazilian is that there were shades of Thierry Henry in the way he curled the ball into the bottom corner.

Gabriel Martinelli swept home a second minutes after Gabriel’s opener

Bradley Collyer/PA Wire

It was a big goal for Martinelli, who after a slow start to the season has now scored five goals in his last nine games for club and country.

Viktor Gyokeres is up to five goals for the season, too, after twice finding the net.

The finishes will not win any goal of the month awards, and the combined distance of them was about six yards. But they are exactly the type of goals Arsenal have not scored under Arteta and underline why Gyokeres was brought in.

“The biggest thing that we’re going to debate about him is goals,” said Arteta. “He has scored two very different ones today, and hopefully he starts to get some momentum and a good run of goals.”

The burden will be eased on Gyokeres by the return of Havertz, who has played just once this season after having knee surgery in August.

Odegaard has had similar fitness issues, and he has started just five of Arsenal’s 12 matches because of knee and shoulder problems.

Havertz and Odegaard being absent would have derailed Arsenal’s push for silverware in the past, but not this time.

Instead, the Gunners are continuing to build momentum - and they show no signs of slowing down.