Arsenal defender Gabriel Magalhaes took to social media to poke fun at RC Lens after Wednesday’s 6-0 win for the Gunners.
Arsenal centre-back Gabriel Magalhaes posted a cheeky message on his Instagram story on Wednesday night, writing in French: “Mais qu est ce qu’il s’est passé?”
In terms of the literal translation, the message simply means: “But what happened?”
But there’s more to it than that. When Lens defeated Arsenal 2-1 earlier in the group stage, the fans sang a chant which was later repeated in videos of the Lens players in the dressing room.
The chant was “Olele, olala, mais qu’est ce qui s’est passé on les a chicoté”, which translates to “Olele, olala, but what happened, we beat them up”.
The Lens dressing room was the place to be last night after their victory against Arsenal 👏💦#UCL pic.twitter.com/k0W6AguDch
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) October 4, 2023
With Arsenal thrashing Lens 6-0 to win their Champions League group with a game to spare, simultaneously eliminating their opponents from the competition, Gabriel made a clear reference to the same chant in response.
The prior provocation from the Lens fans and players perhaps also explains why multiple Arsenal goalscorers went to celebrate in front of the away end in the first half.
Lens are only three points behind second-place PSV with a game to go, but PSV have the head-to-head advantage over the French side, so they can’t trade places on the final day.
Instead, Lens will be playing for a Europa League spot, needing to avoid defeat at home to Sevilla to secure it.
Meanwhile, Arsenal can start thinking about the knockout stages.
The Gunners join Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, and Manchester City in having already mathematically topped their group, with Barcelona also extremely likely to finish top regardless of the results on the final day.
Barcelona would need to lose heavily to Antwerp (whom they previously beat 5-0), with Shakhtar Donetsk also thrashing Porto (whom they previously lost to 3-1), to drop out of the top spot.
Arsenal only know one of their potential opponents though, with only RB Leipzig and PSV having mathematically guaranteed a runners-up spot. Arsenal can’t face PSV again at this stage.