London: Arsenal’s young guns continued to shine as they dismantled Standard Liege 4-0 on a hectic night of Europa League action that produced a full house of Spanish victories, Thursday.
Among the Spanish sides, Sevilla beat APOEL Nicosia 1-0, Espanyol were 2-0 winners away to CSKA Moscow and Getafe won 2-1 in Krasnodar.
There was a notable 2-0 win for Feyenoord over Porto in a clash of former European champions while Premier League team Wolverhampton Wanderers won 1-0 at Besiktas.
Three-time European champions Manchester United played out a dour 0-0 draw away to AZ Alkmaar — a Group L match played in The Hague, 70 miles from Alkmaar, on an artificial pitch. Machester United have four points from two games alongside Partizan Belgrade who enjoyed a 2-1 victory in Astana in their group.
Arsenal, runners-up to Chelsea last year, opened their Group F campaign with an impressive 3-0 win in Frankfurt and found goals easy to come by again as they racked up a sixth successive home win.
Eighteen-year-old Brazilian Gabriel Martinelli scored twice in two minutes with Joe Willock, 20, also on target as a youthful Arsenal blew away their Belgian opponents in a sensational start.
Martinelli also crossed for Dani Ceballos to make it four as Arsenal cemented top spot.
To make it a great night for the Gunners, midfielder Hector Bellerin returned to the starting line-up for his first start after nine months out with a knee injury.
Manager Unai Emery praised his team which had an average starting age of 22.
“We have to give the chances to the young players and they take them,” Emery said. They are close to playing for us at the highest levels. They showed tonight that they can perform and they can score,” added Emery.
Reuters