Thierry Henry thinks that his former Arsenal team will gain new confidence that they can go to the way to the Champions League after the rout 7-1 of the PSV Eindhoven.
The Gunners blew up their Dutch hosts out of the water on Tuesday evening, recording the highest score ever in a single leg outside by any team in the history of the Champions League with their demolition work.
A large part of the speech had been where the goals could come from Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus both for the season, alongside the injuries of Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka.
Needless to say, however, that after seven strikes of six different scorers, Mikel Arteta’s team has goals that take place just through them.
Jurrien Timber, Ethan Nwaneri, Mikel Merino, Martin Odegaard (twice), Leandro Trossard and Riccardo Calafiori were all on the target in a massive result for the Gunners, which sees them almost certain to do the last eight, where they will face a huge shock with real or Atletico Madrid.
As such, with a much more difficult task on the horizon in the quarter -finals, Henry insisted to configure that his old side could use the result to reaffirm that they have what it takes to win the competition.
Arsenal hammered PSV Eindhoven 7-1 to all except to reserve their place in the quarter-finals already
Thierry Henry thinks that the result will give Arsenal the confidence they can go to the end
Captain Martin Odegaard was on the match sheet twice overnight in Eindhoven for Arsenal
“Yes, they can. I think that’s why I called it. I just say now, show us that you can do it against a good team, with people who come back ”, he said on CBS Sports Golazo when asked if Arsenal could challenge one of the Spanish giants.
“No lack of respect for Eindhoven, I really thought it was going to be difficult, especially far from their home, but they made it easy. I think they had an exceptional game as you can see with the result.
“But we all know that the League (first) is over. Apart from the fact that something crazy happens, but what I am trying to say is that this game may help trust this competition, but (also) the game you have after, Real Madrid or Atletico.
“Sometimes I think the path to the final can sometimes help or not, but if you want to win the competition, you have to go through these teams.”
With the Premier League, all except Liverpool already, the only chance of Arsenal to silverware is the Champions League this quarter, having also been eliminated from the FA Cup and the Carabao Cup.
Despite all their improvements under Arteta since the start of its reign, they have yet won only one FA Cup, completing the finalists at the top of the last two seasons.
However, to win the Champions League, they will have to beat the best European teams, hands attached behind their back, given the lack of an attacker.
The Gunners have not gone to a final of the Champions League since 2006, when they lost against Barcelona, and have only made one semi-final since then.
Mikel Arteta talked about the confidence that the resulting result had given to his team
The Gunners will play either Real Madrid of Jude Bellingham, or the firm rivals of Atletico Madrid
However, Tuesday’s victory gives them the platform to make a fourth quarter-final of the Champions League in 20 years, where they will face the 15 winners of 15 times or the Atletico of Diego Simeone, Madrid, with Real Batting They Arch Rivals 2-1 during the Tuesday match.
Arteta himself noted that the result had given his team a lot of “confidence”, without surprise, given the seven goals they scored, as much as their five previous games combined.
“I really enjoyed the match. Thank you to the players for the performance they have achieved. It was a big night for us against a very good team, “he said.
“The way they (PSV) crossed in the last round against Juventus (4-3 on aggregate) was really impressive. The way we did it, the way we played, the goals we have scored. Thank you because it was a special night.
“It obviously gave us a lot of joy, confidence and belief. In football, this is not what we did three days ago or today, it will be what we will do tomorrow.
When asked if he had seen seven goals to come, he joked: “I knew it was going”, before adding: “No. It is the beauty of this one. No one in this room if I give you an envelope and say: “Can you predict what will happen tomorrow and who will mark?” (I would prepare this), it is the beauty of football.
“You are doing very well today, lower your head, be humble, analyze how you can improve because the next game will be completely different from it, and no one can write the script, unfortunately, even if we wish.”