Got a busy one today at work, hence the delayed time of penning some thoughts, as I’m dropping some words in between meetings and also on company time. Don’t tell anyone – you know I’m good for it.

And bloody hell, Arsenal were good for it last night, eh?

I think one of the most depressing things of the last few games prior to that blitzkrieg in Eindhoven last night was where the goals were going to come from. We’d struggled against a -frankly – crap Leicester. West Ham were no great shakes, but they shut us out with a low block. Forest did the same and if you’re anything like me, what you do is project the worst-case scenario when you have watched over 180 minutes of Low Block FC against your lads, which is what had happened over the last 10 days. When you compound the fact that the door was practically slammed shut on our domestic campaign as a result, it all culminated in me personally feeling all a bit ‘meh’ about where we were at.

And that probably coloured my thinking and words going in to the game yesterday. I wrote as much in the morning blog; I just wasn’t really feeling great and I’d shut myself away from social media because I didn’t want it to rile me up. But I’m never missing a game when I can’t help it and so last night I went round a good mate of mine round the corner and we watched what turned out to be quite an entertaining game in the end for sure!

I do think we were aided by just how open PSV were, but when from an attacking point of view you are flatlining a bit because of recent form and injuries, you never need to look a gift horse in the mouth. Arsenal certainly didn’t do that; hay was made whilst the sun doth shineth against a hapless defensive PSV team. And it started within 20 minutes as Jurrien Timber got something very sweet for him personally as an ex-Ajax lad. He had a little word about that after the game and you could see it gave him a fair bit of pleasure to turn up to a former rival team and be part of a side that gave them an absolute schooling.

It was an absolute schooling, in how to be clinical, because quite how PSV hadn’t gone ahead before us by hitting the bar and then dragging the rebound wide, is a bit beyond me to be honest. But within 13 minutes in the middle of the first half this game was almost all but over. The goal from Nwaneri looked like it could have caused damages to the net, such was the crispness of how well he roofed it in to the net following excellent work from Lewis-Skelly. It was a Lewis-Skelly who could consider himself to be lucky on the pitch and the fact he lasted only just until after the 30 minute mark showed just how much Arteta acknowledged he would be walking a tightrope for a second yellow if he wasn’t hooked. We’ve been burned with reds too much this season and Arteta has clearly (and rightly) become a risk-averse man as a result. But back to the goal itself and, honestly, this kid Nwaneri is something else. He was brilliant throughout his time on the pitch and the fact he has scored eight goals already this season in all competitions is mad. He’s 17-year’s old for Christ’s sake. Honestly, speaking to my mate Giles yesterday (and I think I’ve heard a few other pods say this too) and we mused that we’ve probably saved a minimum of £100million by adding these two young lads to the first team. It’s brilliant. And the finish was that of an accomplished elite footballer; I can only liken it to when you hit an iron shot on the golf course and it comes right out of the centre of the club – the sweet spot – and it feels amazing. You know you’ve nuked a 200-yarder as soon as it’s left the club. Nwaneri must have known that as soon as he struck his shot last night.

That was just for two though, so we needed to go for the jugular on a very poor PSV side. The third goal from Merino and I think the second Odegaard goal showed that too. Merino’s goal was weird and how the defender just fell over like he did to allow Merino to stroke the ball in was bizarre. But Odegaard’s second goal to make it 5-1 on the night (no complaints on the Partey penalty we conceded by the way) was basically struck straight at the ‘keeper who just wildly flapped at it. Very poor ‘keeping and he won’t want to be watching the analysis video in training today of that effort.

But PSV were open all night. Odegaard having all the freedom of Eindhoven for his first goal is inexcusable really. Trossard and Calaifiori’s goals were better worked effort and you have to praise both the Italian for his assist, as well as Odegaard for his stabbed pass for Riccardo’s goals, as excellent bits of play. But there was space left all over the park last night and it showed that when you are open against this Arsenal side, you get torn to shreds.

But that isn’t our problem against these types of teams; we don’t struggle when there is space, we struggle when there is a low block team who just don’t want to venture out of their compact shape. It’s in those games that we need to find the answers – of which we don’t have to do today and can just bask in an excellent performance – and perhaps that is the next level that will truly take this Arsenal side to the stratosphere if they can answer that conundrum.

A final thought from me as I wrap up today; I do hope that the manner of this and the size of the victory breathes life in to those players as an attacking force. Man United won’t be as poor as PSV, they will cause us more problems, but my hope is that there is a bit more belief that we can find attacking solutions. We’re going to need it to cement our Champions League status for next season.

Right, back to work and a bunch of meetings, fun-fun-fun.