Mesut Ozil’s first hat trick of his career and goals from Theo Walcott, Alexis Sanchez and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain gave Arsenal an emphatic step towards booking their place in the Champions League last 16, thrashing Bulgaria’s Ludogorets Razgrad 6-0 at Emirates Stadium.
If the Gunners win the reverse fixture on November 1, they could seal qualification for the 17th consecutive year, even with two games to spare.
Alexis Sanchez opened scoring in the 12th minute, followed by Walcott, 30 minutes after. Then Oxlade-Chamberlain’s close range finish in the first minute of the second half, prepared the ground for Ozil’s goal blitz.
Paris St Germain’s 2-0 victory over Basel ensured the French side remain level on seven points with Basel and Ludogorets trailing behind on a solitary point each.
Ludogorets have only reached the group stage once before and Arsenal set about asserting their authority from the outset.
In Spain, Barcelona were ruthless against Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City, beating them 4-0.
Lionel Messi really showed no mercy to his former boss as he recorded a hat trick.
He scored the first goal in the 17th minute and as if City would escape with a dignified scoreline, there was no other goal in the first half.
But on resumption of play, City were pegged to 10 men after Claudio Bravo got a red card.
Sixteen minutes after, Messi had pumped in two more goals.
Barcelona too were later reduced to 10 men, when Jeremy Mathieu was booked twice, in two minutes.
This was no sop to the Manchester team as Neymar scored in the 89th minute after missing a penalty in the 87th.
