Key events
Here’s Ed Aarons’ report from Prague. Thanks for joining me, and enjoy the rest of the football.
Here’s how the big Champions League ladder looks after the early games – and Arsenal are on top. Their remaining games in the “league phase” are Bayern (H), Club Brugge (A), Inter (A), Kairat (H).
Speaking of Copenhagen, that is where Youssoufa Moukoko now plies his trade. The former Dortmund wonderkid was the Champions League’s youngest ever player, until about 20 minutes ago.
Rob Smyth is on hand for the clockwatch, featuring PSG v Bayern Munich and Tottenham v Copenhagen.
It finished Napoli 0-0 Eintracht Frankfurt in tonight’s other early game. Next up: Liverpool v Real Madrid with Scott Murray …
Stick around – we’ll try to get reaction from Mikel Arteta, Mikel Merino or Max Dowman’s maths teacher. Whoever’s available.
Full time: Slavia Prague 0-3 Arsenal
A very satisfactory night’s work for Arsenal, who make it four wins from four in the Champions League and match a 122-year-old club record with an eighth straight clean sheet. Mikel Merino scored twice in the makeshift centre-forward spot, Bukayo Saka was excellent and Max Dowman making history was the icing on the cake.
95 mins: Slavia finally get a shot on target as Mbodji curls an effort that’s straight at David Raya. He’s then booked for scuffling with Gabriel, who he felt had fouled him as he shaped to shoot.
94 mins: Slavia Prague win a late corner, and a final chance to put a dent in Arsenal’s evening. Nope – substitute Annous heads clear.
92 mins: Mbodji tries to bend a cross in to the far post, but Raya claims it. No shots on target conceded by Arsenal tonight.
90 mins: Five minutes of injury time.
89 mins: Time ticking down, the spiciest action happening in the stands where several hundred Slavia ultras are stripped to the waist. It’s a brisk seven degrees Centigrade in Prague tonight.
No penalty! It was a pretty daft decision really, and the referee doesn’t need too many looks before he sheepishly jogs back on and reverses his decision. Maybe he just wanted to spice things up!*
*I am in no way implying he gave a penalty just to spice things up
Slavia Prague penalty? Well then! White is penalised for a high boot on Provod in the area, and Arsenal’s run without conceding is at serious risk now. That said, replays show both players raising a boot simultaneously – and referee Aliyar Aghayev is called to the monitor.
83 mins: Substitute Doudera is booked for dissent, not too long after coming on.
82 mins: Not much time for Slavia Prague to break Arsenal’s run of clean sheets, in a game that’s been very stop-start with all the recent substitutions.
79 mins: Saka takes the free kick but balloons it beyond the goal. Another youngster is coming on for Arsenal – Andre Harriman Annous, a comparatively creaky 17-year-old, replacing Declan Rice.
78 mins: Dowman is quickly involved, drawing a free kick from Mbodji. Perhaps the Slavia man has heard that Dowman was born on New Year’s Eve 2009, and simply lashed out.
76 mins: Nørgaard goes into the book for a foul on Sadilek. Saka is shifting out to the left, to allow Dowman to play on his favoured right side.
74 mins: Moses and Sanyang, two of Slavia’s better performers tonight, are replaced by defender Daiki Hashioka and forward Vasil Kusej.
Max Dowman makes Champions League history
Trossard, who looked to be struggling slightly, is replaced by Max Dowman. The 15-year-old becomes the youngest-ever Champions League player! Timber and Hincapie are also coming off, replaced by Ben White and Myles Lewis-Skelly.
70 mins: Zafeiris is the first Slavia Prague player in the book, for a shove under a high ball. That’s the end of Zafeiris’ night – he’s replaced by Muhammed Cham, with David Doudera on for Vlcek.
Declan Rice plays a hopeful long ball towards Merino, and as Markovic charges off his line to try and scoop it up, the ball hits the back of Merino’s head, goes through the keeper’s arms, and bobbles apologetically into the net. They all count!
GOAL! Sparta Prague 0-3 Arsenal (Merino 68′)
A third Arsenal goal, pretty much from nowhere – and a second for Mikel Merino, thanks in part to some reckless goalkeeping.
66 mins: Raya takes too long on the ball and his clearance is closed down by Provod – but the keeper recovers to grab the loose ball. Arsenal losing their run of clean sheets in that fashion would have been objectively funny.
64 mins: Eze is on for Nwaneri, who was on a yellow card. By the way, Arsenal are top of the league standings as it stands – and could stay there with PSG facing Bayern and Real Madrid at Anfield tonight.
63 mins: Saka pops back up on the right and takes on Mbodji, whose eventual clearance is mopped up by Saliba. He plays it left to Timber, who fancies a run through midfield, and almost breaks into the area.
62 mins: A first Arsenal change coming up, with Eberechi Eze coming on. Saka holds the ball up well, but Arsenal can’t quite find the killer ball to open up the hosts’ defence.
60 mins: The best opening for Slavia so far, but snuffed out by Gabriel. Slavia found space behind and Sanyang swept the ball across goal towards Chytil – but despite being behind his man, Gabriel manages to lever him off the ball legally.
59 mins: At one end, Saka latches on to Rice’s cross and gets a shot away under pressure, but Markovic is right behind it. At the other end …
58 mins: Sadilek slips as he takes the corner, ballooning the ball towards the edge of the area (and perhaps piquing the interest of set-piece coaches across Europe). Arsenal are able to clear it away.
57 mins: The lively Sanyang topples over close to the corner flag, with the referee ruling that Timber tugged on his arm. Slavia free kick, swept towards the far post and behind for a corner off Hincapie.
56 mins: Norgaard, who’s slotted neatly into the Arsenal midfield, stretches out a leg to cut out a diagonal pass.
54 mins: Slavia win a corner, but one of their number is whistled for a foul. Hard to tell who, could have been two or three of them.
53 mins: At the other end, Sanyang cuts in from the byline and looks for Zafeiris – and with Saliba also closing in, Saka gets back to make the challenge.
52 mins: Markovic has to race out and head a long ball away; it falls to Norgaard who thinks about lobbing it straight back at goal, but tries to take a touch and is dispossessed.
50 mins: Zafeiris goes through the back of Merino, then remonstrates with the referee after he’s penalised. It’s become a frustrating night for the hosts.
48 mins: Chory hobbles off, replaced by another striker in the shape of Mojmir Chytil.
It’s a simple but effective setup, Rice sweeping the ball left to Trossard, who finds Merino unmarked between two centre-backs. He takes it beautifully, cushioning a volley inside the near post to pretty much wrap this game up.
GOAL! Slavia Prague 0-2 Arsenal (Merino 46′)
And within seconds, Arsenal double their lead through emergency striker Mikel Merino!
Second half
We’re back under way …
Meanwhile, Scott Murray covers the Trent Alexander-Arnold derby between Liverpool and Real Madrid.
In the other early kick-off, it’s Napoli 0-0 Eintracht Frankfurt at half-time. Woo! Rob Smyth is on clockwatch duty for the later games …
“Even as an Arsenal supporter, I’m embarrassed by that ludicrous penalty decision,” writes Charles Antaki. “But Saka has scored it, so that’s great. Both things can, as they say, be true at the same time.”
On the penalty: it feels like a decision that might not be given in the Premier League, and the rules state that “a handball offence is not committed when a player heads, kicks or plays the ball with another part of their body and it then hits their own hand/arm.”
Champions League referees are more likely to weigh up the high arm as more significant than the slight deflection off Provod’s head. It’s a soft penalty, but not a baffling one. What we can all agree on, though, is that parsing handball rules during an MBM is a lot of fun.
Half time: Slavia Prague 0-1 Arsenal
Bukayo Saka’s penalty has Arsenal in front after a bruising first half – and their goal remains unbreached, too, with Slavia offering a lot of intensity but not truly testing David Raya yet.
50 mins: Hincapie and Chory tussle under the high ball, and there’s a big appeal for handball as Hincapie ends up on the deck. The referee gives Arsenal a free kick, leading to a bit of pushing and shoving between both sets of players. Replays show it was a fair decision.
49 mins: Saliba is penalised for bringing Provod down in midfield, but escapes a yellow card. Slavia will heave it in …
48 mins: Arsenal stroke the ball around without much intent, before Nwaneri attempts a pass that’s too far from Rice and too short for Trossard.
46 mins: Arsenal doing a good job of holding their hosts at arms’ length now. Slavia look a bit weary from their first-half endeavours.
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