Scores & Results Sports23 Desk 1 min read
Arsenal 3-0 Lille: Timber Breaks Through as Saka Seals It
Three goals in seven second-half minutes extended a remarkable Emirates streak on a night Arsenal remembered life president Ken Friar.
Arsenal made it twelve consecutive home wins in the Champions League league stage on Tuesday night, beating Lille 3-0 at the Emirates on an evening that doubled as a tribute to Ken Friar, the club's life president, whose death at 92 was confirmed earlier in the day.
The players wore black armbands, and Olivier Giroud — now 40 and back in north London with the French club — received a standing ovation from the home crowd.
A seven-minute storm
For more than an hour, Davide Ancelotti's Lille frustrated a laboured Arsenal attack. The breakthrough came in the 64th minute when Noni Madueke picked out Jurrien Timber, whose brilliant first touch set up a deft right-footed finish.
Then came the deluge. Bukayo Saka — introduced from the bench alongside Martin Odegaard and Kai Havertz — set up Eberechi Eze to dispatch the second with his left foot less than three minutes later, before Saka combined with Havertz and Odegaard to add the third himself.
Records stacking up
The win is Arsenal's 14th successive victory in the Champions League league stage — three short of Bayern Munich's record — and they have conceded only three goals across those 12 home wins since returning to the competition in 2023-24. Saka's strike was the club's 36th at the Emirates in that span.
Teenager Max Dowman's late cameo rounded off the night, and Mikel Arteta dedicated the performance to Friar: "The legacy that Ken is going to leave for this club is going to be forever."
