Slavia Prague 0-3 Arsenal: Merino at the double in routine Champions League win
Arsenal maintained their perfect start to their Champions League campaign with a 3-0 win over Slavia Prague on Tuesday.
Stand-in striker Mikel Merino delivered a second-half double as Arsenal cruised to a 3-0 victory over Slavia Prague in the Champions League.
Mikel Arteta's team were shorn of the injured Viktor Gyokeres for Tuesday's trip to Fortuna Arena, where another attacking option, Gabriel Martinelli, was also absent.
It meant the versatile Merino filled in up top, and the Spain international once again came up with the good for the Gunners, who moved - at least temporarily - three points clear at the top of the 36-team standings, with four wins from four.
Bukayo Saka put them ahead with a 32nd-minute penalty, with Slavia captain Lukas Provod adjudged to have handled while defending a corner.
Merino then grabbed Arsenal's quickest second-half goal in their Champions League history as he turned in from Leandro Trossard's centre just 35 seconds after the restart.
It was 3-0 in the 68th minute as Merino beat Jakub Markovic to Declan Rice's floated cross and guided his header home.
Provod thought he had won a penalty late on, but the referee changed his mind after a VAR review, meaning Arsenal's pristine clean sheet record in Europe this season also stayed intact.
Data Debrief: Saka into the record books
Saka, who captained the Premier League leaders, is the first Arsenal player to ever find the net in four consecutive Champions League away games.
His finish was also Arsenal's earliest penalty goal in a Champions League game in exactly 11 years, since Arteta struck from the spot against Anderlecht on November 4, 2014, in the 25th minute.
Saka had five attempts on target, with four of those coming in the first half. He is the first Arsenal player on record (since 2003-04) to have four or more shots on target in the first half of a Champions League game.
Merino, meanwhile, is the first Spanish player to score twice in a European match for Arsenal since Lucas Perez struck a hat-trick at Basel in December 2016.
Arsenal have now won their last eight games in all competitions without conceding, a joint record for an English top-flight club along with Preston North End in 1889 and Liverpool in 1920.
