LONDON -- From parity to obliteration in the space of a quarter hour, but then I suppose that is simply what happens when Europe's apex predators smell blood in the water. And yes, Arsenal might not have the trophies to rank alongside the other big beasts of the Champions League favorites, but past success doesn't win you anything this season -- what does is being able to beat high-grade opposition in any number of ways.

The levee might have broken by a set piece, as it so often is, but there is a reason that Arsenal get in the position to loft that many balls in Gabriel Magalhaes' direction. For the best part of an hour, they held court in Atletico Madrid's third, probing at weak points and drawing ever more clumsy tackles from Diego Simeone's increasingly beleaguered charges. Bukayo

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