Struggling to score away from home in Europe is certainly no longer a concern for Arsenal after this dominant victory in Lisbon.

Following blanks at Italian sides Atalanta and Inter, Gabriel Martinelli scored their first Champions League goal away from the Emirates all season within 10 minutes against Sporting CP after neat work down the threatening right side. Two more duly followed as Mikel Arteta’s team cruised to a 3-0 half-time lead.

Sporting, having lost manager Ruben Amorim to Manchester United, had looked bewildered but pulled one back early in the second half as the home crowd got behind their side, before Arsenal regained control through a penalty from Bukayo Saka just past the hour after Martin Odegaard had been brought down by Ousmane Diomande. The Sporting defender was already on a yellow card and was fortunate to avoid being sent off for the foul.

Leandro Trossard completed the win late on, as Arsenal scored five away in the Champions League for the first time in 16 years, a 5-2 group stage win in Istanbul against Fenerbahce.

Amy Lawrence, Jordan Campbell and Mark Carey analyse the action.

How important a statement was that first-half blitz?

Believing they can be their best selves is a big deal for this Arsenal team in the Champions League.

They arrived in Lisbon knowing they had been inhibited in their Champions League campaign so far, and started the game as if determined to make up for it in record time. The intensity of the press, with a front four on the front foot with fire in their boots, was a nightmare for Sporting.

Odegaard bewitched behind the galloping runs of Saka, Martinelli and Kai Havertz.

(Filipe Amorim/AFP via Getty Images)

As a blueprint for how to make inroads away from home in Europe, Arsenal could not have been more dominant in that dazzling first half. Their control, focus and efficiency were cranked up. It had supporters racking their brains for the last time they had seen Arsenal so electric, and so mature, in the Champions League. Maybe the famous 5-1 win at Inter in 2003, or the legendary victory against Real Madrid at the Bernabeu in 2006. More recently there was a fine 4-2 in Valencia’s Mestalla in 2019, but that was the Europa League.

“You have to make it happen,” said manager Arteta in the build-up to the match. “Those steps are what we have to take next.”

Arsenal now know they can jump up those steps when their game is in tune.

Amy Lawrence

Is Odegaard already back to the top of his game?

Arsenal fans hardly needed reminding of Odegaard’s quality, but the 25-year-old has wasted no time finding his rhythm since he returned from injury.

It is not just the individual skill that Odegaard brings to Mikel Arteta’s side, it is also his ability to unlock Arsenal’s attacking potency on the right flank. Much was made of the attacking triangle of Odegaard, Saka and Ben White last season, but Jurrien Timber looks more than capable of joining the right-sided trio in the latter’s absence.

The rotations of that triangle were key in Arsenal’s opener.

Odegaard pulled wide and Saka drifted inside, leaving space for Timber to deliver a pinpoint cross for Martinelli to finish at the back post. In truth, Sporting’s five-man defence should not have been pulled apart so easily, given their numerical advantage across the back line, but Arsenal’s rotations forced the Portuguese champions into areas they didn’t want to go.

Odegaard’s tendency to consistently pull midfielder Hidemasa Morita out of position allowed Arsenal to exploit gaps on the right side of the pitch — with a similar pattern occurring for their second goal. Morita’s preoccupancy with Odegaard gave Thomas Partey the time and space to lift a ball over Sporting’s back line to Saka, who rolled a simple pass for Havertz to finish.

If people thought that Arsenal’s engine had begun to sputter, Odegaard’s recent return from two months out with an ankle injury certainly looks to have clicked them back into gear.

Mark Carey

How did Saliba and Gabriel control Gyokeres?

It was the Swedish striker’s celebration we have come so used to seeing. Sadly for Viktor Gyokeres, it was his direct opponent on the night, Gabriel, who performed it.

After timing his run perfectly to meet Declan Rice’s deep delivery, the Brazilian centre-back headed the ball home to make it 3-0, then clasped his hands over his face in front of the Sporting fans in the corner of the ground.

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery but the copying of Gyokeres’ goal celebration was likely seen as payback for Pedro Goncalves doing the same with Granit Xhaka’s two seasons ago as Sporting knocked Arsenal out in the last 16 of the Europa League.

Gabriel’s goal here capped off a dominant performance in which he shackled Gyokeres, who was the main focus in the lead-up to the game. With Arsenal failing to score in their previous four away games in the competition and the Sporting forward spearheading their 4-1 Champions League win here against Manchester City earlier this month, there has been discussion about whether he is the type of striker Arsenal could do with.

The only person who refused to talk about his impressive tally of 24 goals in 19 games this season during the build-up to the match was Arteta but he struggled against Gabriel and centre-back partner William Saliba, who was making his 100th Arsenal appearance.

Gyokeres likes to drift to the left and cut in on his right foot but tonight he peeled onto Gabriel’s side of the pitch instead. He did not find much joy there, however, as Gabriel repeatedly manhandled him or stepped in front to cut out a pass to his feet.

Sporting did find Gyokeres running into space several times but Gabriel managed those situations calmly and did not dive in. The Swede’s two clearest sight of goal came in the second half but he skied both shots well over the bar on a night when he did not produce his best.

His best bit of play came late on, when he isolated Jakub Kiwior and got down the outside of the Polish defender but, while his left-footed shot beat David Raya, the ball smacked off the post.

Jordan Campbell

What are Arsenal’s prospects now for the top eight?

Hopes of automatic qualification for the serious stuff, without the need for an extra knockout round, via a top-eight finish feel a lot healthier for Arsenal now. They moved into seventh place with this handsome win, although there may be some movement to the table with the Wednesday matches to come. Scoring five has done wonders for their goal difference, which might be important as the final table shapes up in the new year.

Arsenal have three games remaining — Monaco of France’s Ligue 1 at home on December 11, and then in January they host Dinamo Zagreb of Croatia and visit Spain’s Girona, two teams who have not pulled up trees in the league phase so far with three combined wins from eight matches.

Is it imperative to finish in the top cluster? No, but it is undeniably favourable.

Who knows, maybe Arteta will be able to squeeze in a few days for his players in the Dubai sunshine if they avoid that extra knockout round in February. Boosting their performance levels, on top of the standards they have set in the past few days, is a tantalising thought.

Amy Lawrence

What did Mikel Arteta say?

Speaking after the match, Arteta said to TNT Sports, “It’s a big result against a big opponent. They haven’t lost a game here in 18 months and we wanted to make a statement.

“I felt really good energy and belief before the match, but you have to put it into practice. I think the first half was exceptional, it gave us the platform to win the game. It was a really positive and important win for us.

When asked about the space his side found in the first half, Arteta said, “You have to earn that space, they don’t usually give it. But I think we were really clever and really intelligent, really efficient in the way we attacked them.”

On dealing with the goal Sporting pulled back just minutes into the second half, he added, “You could feel the atmosphere was changing, the last thing you want to do is concede in the first minute and give them any belief. But after that we showed after that we showed a lot of personality to bring the game down and to have the ball again and defend deeper. And we went on to score the fourth and I think that is when the game changed again.”

What next for Arsenal?

Saturday, November 30: West Ham United (A), Premier League, 5.30pm UK, 12.30pm ET

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(Top photo: FILIPE AMORIM/AFP via Getty Images)