Arsenal Win at Slavia Prague as Madueke and Gyokeres Find the Net
Arsenal beat Slavia Prague away in the Champions League, The Guardian reports, with two goals in the first half.
Noni Madueke opened the scoring after eight minutes. Viktor Gyokeres provided the pass that set him up. Gyokeres then got his own goal seven minutes before half-time, after a one-two with Mikel Merino. A one-two is a quick pass to a teammate and an immediate return, played past a defender in a few touches.
Mikel Arteta, Arsenal's manager, made six changes to his side for the match. The Premier League champions had come into it on the back of a 2-2 draw at Bayern Munich two weeks earlier. They had also lost to Fleetwood in the EFL Cup, the League Cup, the week before. Arsenal won the 2025/26 Premier League title for the first time in 22 years, the Premier League says.
Away from home in Europe, Arsenal are unbeaten in their last 10 matches. That run is part of why the trip to Prague was watched closely. Gyokeres was the top scorer in the Premier League last season with 21 goals, and he has now added to that tally in the Champions League.
Slavia's problems in Europe run deeper. They have now gone 23 matches without a win in the European Cup and Champions League, which equals the record shared by AEK Athens and FCSB. Their only victory in the competition came in their very first match, in 2007.
The two sides have met before. Slavia lost 3-0 at home to Arsenal exactly a year before this game, and Merino scored two goals for Arsenal in that meeting. Slavia will want to forget this one quickly, while Arsenal will take the early lead and the fact that they kept their away record intact.
There was one more happy moment for Arsenal's supporters. William Saliba, the defender, came back from a long-term back injury and was named on the bench, alongside Martin Odegaard. He did not play, but being back in the squad is a step forward for a player the club have missed.
For the neutral, this match is a reminder of how quickly a Champions League night can turn. A team can lose a domestic cup tie in one week and then win away in Europe the next. Arsenal showed both sides of that in the space of a fortnight.
