After reaching the final of the Europa League last season, the Gunners found all three points in their first match of this year's group stage in Germany against Eintracht Frankfurt. Arsenal came into the match off the back of a 2-2 draw at home to Watford, although they were 2-0 up at half time in the match.
Adi Hutter's Eintracht lost their previous game at FC Augsburg 2-1 to a wonder-goal from Niederlechner, with Goncalo Paciencia netting one as a consolation. The eagles have not yet properly recovered from the losses of Luka Jovic, Sebastien Haller and Ante Rebic, and have struggled for firepower in a number of games. Bas Dost and Andre Silva were brought in to try and help with this, but have not yet had the same level of an impact.
The game
Joe Willock netted the match's opener in the 35th minute of the game for Arsenal. The youngster cut inside on the right of the Eintracht box before smashing his ball towards Kevin Trapp's goal. His shot took a wicked deflection off the leg of David Abraham around ten yards out, diverting the ball up to the crossbar and down into the net, leaving no opportunity for it to be saved.
The Eagles attacked Arsenal for the majority of the game and managed to secure 24 shots, but with only seven of them hitting the target and with none able to be converted into a goal, Adi Hutter's side were not able to trouble their English opposition.
Star player for the match, Bukayo Saka, was able to get off of the mark for the season himself in the 85th minute. He picked up the ball on the 'D' just outside of the 18-yard box after a pass from Willock, and effortlessly curled the ball into the bottom-left corner of the Germans' net.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has scored a number of goals in his past career at the Commerzbank-Arena in his career, having played nearly 150 games for Borussia Dortmund in the Bundesliga before joining the gunners. In the 87th minute, a ball from Saka found the feet of an unmarked Aubameyang inside of the box, and all that was left for him to do was calmly slot the ball past Trapp to make it three for the night for Arsenal.
Takeaways
The youngster has not made many appearances for Arsenal in the past, but Saka impressed all who watched the match on Thursday night. The Englishman was involved in all three of his side's goals, setting up two with good passes and scoring one for himself with a sublime long-range finish
Both sides step back into their retrospective leagues this weekend, wir with Frankfurt hosting Borussia Dortmund and Arsenal playing newly promoted Aston Villa. It will be a tough test for Eintracht against a side who have already been able to score 13 in only four matches, and were able to hold Barcelona to a draw in the Champions League midweek.
The Gunners will look to use this win to build momentum in the Premier League in which they have not won yet in September.