A first-half brace from Danny Welbeck and an Alexis Sanchez strike has handed Arsenal some much-needed breathing room against Group D opponents Galatasaray.
Having lost their opening group match 2-0 at Borussia Dortmund, the Gunners entered today’s game needing to set the tone early and that was exactly what they did, taking the match to their Turkish opponent with an attacking display seldom seen this season.
Despite injuries to Aaron Ramsey, Mikel Arteta and Jack Wilshere, the Gunners came out flying with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain looking particularly dangerous down the right side. After a ten minute wave of sustained pressure from Arsene Wenger’s side, Gala did well to to briefly take the sting out of the match before the wheels came off as the lively Sanchez cut in from the left wing and slipped a perfect ball behind Felipe Melo that Welbeck latched on to and stabbed past an onrushing Fernando Muslera.
Eight minutes later and Welbeck doubled Arsenal’s lead after Aurelien Chedjou misjudged his header at half field and the Englishman burned past Melo before opening his hips and firing past Muslera into the bottom corner. In full control, Arsenal continued to pour forward leaving the Gala defense in sixes-and-sevens and the visiting fans in disarray. After a brief delay to clear flares thrown onto the pitch by Turkish fans, Arsenal found their third when Mesut Ozil linked up with Sanchez and the Chilean finished low and hard past Muslera.
