Bukayo Saka set up Leandro Trossard for the opener against Sevilla (Photo: Getty)
Arsenal eased to a 2-0 victory over Sevilla on but they’ve been made to wait on booking their place in the Champions League knockout stage.
Goals from Leandro Trossard and Bukayo Saka got the win at the Emirates on Wednesday night.
The Gunners knew that victory over the Spaniards combined with Lens beating PSV would seal their qualification to the round-of-16.
But having lost their last two games and with key players Gabriel Jesus, Martin Odegaard and Eddie Nketiah missing, three points would hardly be a formality, even against an out-of-form opposition.
Right from kick-off, Arsenal controlled proceedings and generated chances, with an unmarked Kai Havertz missing a great chance to score from a corner within the first minute.
Sevilla could hardly get out of their own half and quickly resorted to continuously hacking down Saka, though he and Gabriel Martinelli just kept causing problems.
That said, the Gunners struggled to really test keeper Marko Dmitrovic until the half-hour mark, when Trossard fired in the opener after being teed up Saka who in turn had been played in by a brilliant Jorginho pass.
Saka scored the second goal of the night but came off with injury later (Photo: Getty)
From there, Sevilla attempted to impose themselves on the game but were no match for the Premier League side who came close to a second several times after the break through Havertz and Trossard.
Eventually, they got their second courtesy of Saka who latched onto a great pass from Martinelli before running into the box, cutting onto his left-foot and slotting past Dmitrovic.
It wasn’t until the 74th minute that the struggling La Liga side came anywhere near to scoring, when substitute Mariano Diaz brilliantly worked his way into the box but just couldn’t find a teammate to get an effort away, with Sevilla failing to register a shot until the 97th minute.
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As the game petered out, there was some concern for Saka who appeared to hurt his angle and eventually hobbled off the pitch, while there was a late check for a penalty against Fabio Vieira for handball but there were the only damp patches on a superb night for Mikel Arteta and co.
But while they got the win, and are four points clear at the top of their group, they’ll have to wait for the place in the knockouts to be confirmed after PSV beat 10-man Lens 1-0 in the Netherlands.
It means that Arsenal need just one point from their final two games to qualify and they’ll have the first chance to get that at home to Lens on 29th November.
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But they haven’t booked their place in the knockouts yet.