Thierry Henryrevealed his three ‘favourites’ to win theChampions LeagueafterArsenal’s dominant victory overAtletico Madrid.
Henry’s former club Arsenal maintained their perfect start to this season’s Champions League with anemphatic 4-0 win over Atletico.
The Emirates Stadium clash was goalless at half-time but Arsenalasserted their dominance after the break, scoring four goals in 13 minutes to blow the visitors away.
Brazilian pairGabriel MagalhaesandGabriel Martinelliput the Gunners in control beforeViktor Gyokeres ended a runof nine games without a goal with a quickfire brace.
Arsenal are one of only three teams to boast a perfect record in Europe after three games, although the likes of Bayern Munich and Real Madrid can join the Gunners on nine points on Wednesday night.
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Mikel Arteta’s side reached the semi-finals of this competition last season beforelosing to eventual winners PSGbut Henry believes they can go one step further this time around.
CBS Sportshost Kate Scott in fact revealed that Henry viewed Arsenal as one of the three ‘favourites’ to win the Champions League along with Bayern and holders PSG.
‘Thierry spoke about Arsenal in very high terms and obviously put them besides Bayern Munich and PSG in terms of favourites for this competition now,’ she said as she asked Jamie Carragher for his take on Arsenal’s Champions League chances.
‘Do you see it similarly, Jamie?’
Carragher, who lifted the Champions League trophy with Liverpool in 2005, said: ‘Right now I think Arsenal and Bayern are the two most impressive teams I’ve seen when you look at their performances domestically and what they’re doing in the Champions League.
‘I’ve said before on this show that I’ve never had Arsenal down as a Champions League club.
‘I know that might sound obvious because they’ve never won it before but I’ve always thought there’s something about them that doesn’t connect, they’ve never really gone close.
‘Thierry’s [Arsenal] team was the best team I ever played against in the Premier League and even that team didn’t come close enough to winning the Champions League. It wasn’t that team that got to the Champions League final.
‘I do look at this team now and see how strong they are defensively. My Liverpool team that won the Champions League were not a great team attacking-wise but we were strong defensively.
‘That always gives you a chance, especially when you get to the knockout stages and the two-legged ties. If you’re strong defensively you’ve always got a chance.
‘So, yeah, I see Arsenal as one of the four or five teams that can win this competition.’
Arsenal boss Arteta was delighted not only by his team’s emphatic victory but alsoGyokeres’ performance after he ended his goal drought.
‘I am very pleased,’ Arsenal’s £64m summer signing toldUEFA. ‘They had some good opportunities but I think we controlled it overall.
‘To score four and keep a clean sheet again is very good. We always keep going. We do the things right when we defend and when we get the chances we are extremely strong in taking those.
‘Both [my] goals were great. I try to do my best all the time and work hard, contribute with different stuff and the goals would have come sooner or later.
‘We want to do well, we want to win football matches but there’s a long journey to go. We will take it game-by-game, even if that sounds boring.’
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