Lille kept Arsenal out for 63 minutes, and then conceded three in seven
Jurriën Timber, Eberechi Eze and Bukayo Saka all scored in the second half as Arsenal made it two wins from two in the Champions League league phase.
Oct 14, 2026
Lille kept Arsenal out for 63 minutes at the Emirates on Tuesday night. Then Jurriën Timber scored, Bukayo Saka came off the bench, and by the 71st minute it was 3-0.
Mikel Arteta’s side have now won both of their Champions League league-phase games, after a 1-0 win in Naples against Napoli in the opener. Lille have lost both of theirs and are still waiting for a point.
A flat first hour
Arteta made five changes from the 2-1 win over Leeds on Saturday. Bruno Guimarães, who came off the bench to win that game, got his first home start for the club, and Viktor Gyökeres came back in up front. Mikel Merino, who scored three times for Spain during the international break, also started and headed straight at Berke Özer early on.
Lille thought they had gone ahead in the first half when Ayase Ueda put the ball in, but VAR ruled it out for offside.
Arsenal were also without Martín Zubimendi and Piero Hincapié, who were both hurt in a training session after the Leeds game.
Seven minutes
Timber broke through in the 64th minute, lifting a finish over Özer from Noni Madueke’s low cross. Arteta then sent on Saka, Kai Havertz and Martin Ødegaard together, and the bench changed the game almost at once. Saka set up Eberechi Eze three minutes later. Six minutes after coming on, he scored the third himself.
Neither Timber nor Eze had scored this season before Tuesday.
“It was a joy to watch, the three goals were unbelievable,” Arteta said. Davide Ancelotti, the Lille coach, felt the scoreline was too harsh on his players.
Friar tribute and a Giroud return
Arsenal’s players wore black armbands for Ken Friar, the club’s life president, whose death at 92 was announced on Tuesday. Friar first worked for the club as a boy in 1946 and helped oversee the move from Highbury to the Emirates. Arteta dedicated the win to him.
There was a familiar face in the visiting side too. Olivier Giroud, who scored 105 goals for Arsenal, came on for Lille in the 78th minute.
What comes next
Arsenal go to Nottingham Forest in the Premier League on Sunday, then to Bayern Munich on 21 October for the third round of league-phase games. Bayern were held 3-3 by Viking in Norway on Tuesday, and Munich should be a far tougher night than this one.