Arsenal stretched their winning run to eight when they beat Ruud van Nistelrooy’s PSV Eindhoven on Thursday night in their rearranged Europa League game.

In a match where Mikel Arteta made six changes to the starting lineup and Arsenal never really hit top gear, they never seemed to be under any sort of threat from PSV.

Arsenal-linked Cody Gakpo, one of the few players in Europe even close to keeping pace with Erling Haaland, didn’t even get a shot in. He has three goals from his other three Europa League games, and an assist.

In a game that never felt like it was out of Arsenal’s control, Granit Xhaka was the man to break the deadlock in the 71st minute.

His smooth strike from just inside the box is his third goal of the season as his fantastic form continues continues.

Xhaka has now scored as many as he had in the previous three seasons combined. He is just one short of the four he scored in the 18/19 season.

Xhaka’s yellow card, his second in the competition, was a flash back to the Granit of old, but it was also funny.

In goal, Matt Turner had little to do. One save down low was gathered well, but beyond that, he was untroubled and collected his third cleansheet in four Europa League games.

Speaking after the game, Mikel Arteta said about being five points clear in the group, “As I said before, when you have the chance in Europe take it. We’ve done our bit, because we’re qualified but finishing first and second is a big difference and we have to get the job done.”

On Xhaka’s goal, “It was great [the goal], obviously with his right foot and half-volley for Granit to score that goal! He is getting in great positions in every single game and that’s why he’s scoring goals.

“We had really good moments and were dominant in the game against a really good side, but we lacked that final pass, final shot, too many shots off target in really open situations we could have defined better.

“But overall we are happy to have qualified which is the first step.

Speaking to reporters in his press conference, Arteta added, “We have qualified and we’re really pleased. Now we want to achieve first in the group. We had some really good moments, but we lacked in the final third.

“Today we should have scored more goals, same in the first half against Leeds. That will come.”

Next up for Arsenal is a trip to Southampton in the Premier League.