PRAGUE: Arsenal equalled a 122-year-old club record of eight successive games in all competitions without conceding a goal as they swept past Slavia Prague 3-0 on Tuesday to go top of the Champions League with four wins out of four.
Mikel Merino, replacing injured striker Viktor Gyokeres as a makeshift forward, scored twice in the second half after England winger Saka had put the Premier League leaders ahead in the 32nd minute.
Arsenal, who brought on 15-year-old Max Dowman in the second half to become the youngest-ever player in the Champions League, have now also won their last 10 games in a row and looked unstoppable at the Fortuna Arena.
The only threat to the eighth successive clean sheet, and a record dating back to 1903, came late in the game when VAR overruled a penalty decision on a Ben White challenge.
Otherwise goalkeeper David Raya spent much of the match as a spectator, watching Arsenal make light of injury absences with another assured display.
DOMINATED THE DEFENSIVE PART
“Emotionally I think we handled it very well. It shows the consistency we have, we dominated the defensive part of the game against a team that is very difficult to play against,” said manager Mikel Arteta.
“Tonight we made four changes from the weekend and they all performed really well. Overall a really productive evening.”
Saka’s spot kick, the ball drilled to the bottom corner with Jakub Markovic unable to reach it despite diving the right way, calmed nerves after an aggressive and high-pressing start by the home side.
The penalty was given, harshly to some onlookers, after Gabriel’s header hit Slavia captain Lukas Provod’s raised hand and a VAR review confirmed the handball.
Arsenal ended the half with five shots on target, four from Saka, and 63% of the possession.
Merino made it 2-0 on the volley, 36 seconds after the start of the second half, from a cross by the unmarked Leandro Trossard.
The Spanish midfielder then put Arsenal 3-0 ahead in the 68th with a header flicked past goalkeeper Jakub Markovic after Declan Rice lofted the ball into the area.
Trossard came off and was replaced by Dowman, at 15 years and 308 days old taking a record previously set by Youssoufa Moukoko at 16 years and 18 days with Borussia Dortmund in 2020.
“It doesn’t get any harder than this competition and Max at 15 straight away looked to take people on and win free kicks,” said Arteta.
“We have a massive player there.”
Slavia are still without a win in the league phase and remain on two points.
“We knew that it would be a very difficult game for us but at the beginning it was good. We were defending very well but after the opening goal it was much easier for Arsenal,” Provod told UEFA.com. — REUTERS
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