Set Piece Cash In

Emirates Stadium, London

Atlético Madrid arrived in London bearing both scars and pride. Simeone’s men had opened the Spanish season with their familiar cocktail of defiance and discipline — a 3–2 win over Rayo Vallecano courtesy of a Julián Álvarez hat-trick, followed by a 5–2 demolition of Real Madrid, their first time scoring five against their city rivals in seventy-five years. 

In Europe, they had fought as they always do — from behind, in pain. A 3–2 defeat at Anfield, having clawed back from two goals down, was followed by a 5–1 dismantling of Eintracht Frankfurt, where Antoine Griezmann netted his 200th for the club. They arrived in North London knowing exactly who they were: hard to break, harder to silence.

From the opening whistle, it followed a Simeone script. Koke fouled Zubimendi within sixty seconds, setting a sharp, territorial rhythm. Arsenal responded with their own aggression: Myles Lewis-Skelly snapping into duels, Ebere Eze weaving through red and white lines. Inside five minutes, Eze’s deflected shot clipped the bar; Rice’s follow-up volley skimmed over.

The tempo was fierce, the margins thin. Atlético retreated into their compact shell, suffocating rhythm and space. On 24 minutes, a rare lapse almost punished Arsenal — Raya misjudged a loose ball, Giuliano Simeone pounced and squared for Álvarez, who rolled his shot wide of an empty net. Yellow cards soon followed, Zubimendi’s earned him a suspension for the next fixture. Martinelli thought he’d broken through after Saka’s cross, but the flag rose. The half ended as a deadlock.

The second half erupted. Álvarez rattled the bar early, a warning Arsenal heeded instantly. Minutes later, Martinelli’s burst down the left drew a foul from Marcos Llorente. Free kick. On 56 minutes, Gabriel Magalhães rose unmarked to meet a Rice delivery, thundering a header past Oblak. Another set piece, another piece of design.

Atlético staggered. Within minutes, Lewis-Skelly carved through midfield and released Martinelli, who finished with surgical calm. The Emirates roared — 2–0. Then came the deluge. Martinelli again broke through, feeding Eze; his mishit volley fell to Viktor Gyökeres, who bundled it home. Three minutes later, the Swede struck again, turning in a flick from Gabriel at another Rice delivery. Four goals in thirteen minutes. Their counter-press swarmed, every lost ball a trigger. Atlético tried to rebuild, but the old rhythm — compactness, cynicism, cruelty — had deserted them. “Olé, olé, olé” was the only thing to be heard. Raya preserved the clean sheet with a sharp stop in the 84th minute, sealing Arsenal’s ninth consecutive European home win without conceding.

Arsenal 4 – 0 Atlético de Madrid

(G. Magalhães ‘57, G. Martinelli ‘64, V. Gyokeres ‘67, ‘70)