Bukayo Saka scored twice and Kai Havertz added a late third to beat Monaco and take us one step closer to booking our place in the last 16 of the Champions League next spring.
The winger netted a goal in each half to beat the Ligue 1 side, tapping home Gabriel Jesus’ centre on 34 minutes before accepting an early Christmas present from visiting goalkeeper Radoslaw Majecki 12 minutes from time to avoid a nervy conclusion.
The victory sees us move to 13 points and into third in the standings, with one more win from our final two games almost certainly enough to see us finish in the top eight and skip the play-off round in February.
Both teams went into this contest level on 10 points, and knowing a win would see them plant one foot in the last 16, neither was prepared to show their hand early on.
The opening 25 minutes was a cagey affair with little goalmouth action. Gabriel Jesus poked an effort straight at Radoslaw Majecki in the Monaco goal, Aleksandr Golovin failed to hit the target from the edge of the area and Martin Odegaard saw a pair of similar shots suffer the same fate as both sides traded jabs.
But we began to turn the screw and soon created two huge opportunities for Jesus within the space of three minutes. Firstly, a long Jakub Kiwior ball allowed Jesus to beat the offside trap and go through on goal, but after steadying himself, he scuffed his shot and Majecki’s boot diverted it away.
Our no. 9 had little time to dwell on that miss when he again found himself racing goalwards. This time he did great to hold off Thilo Kehrer to get a shot off, but the Monaco keeper stuck out a big hand to get enough on the ball and stop it creeping over his goalline.
The pressure, and atmosphere, was building, and on 33 minutes the breakthrough finally arrived – in part thanks to someone starting their first Champions League game.
Myles Lewis-Skelly became the youngest player to start for us in the competition since Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in 2011, but he showed a wise head to create our opener. Picking the ball up 40 yards out, he turned past Maghnes Akliouche and pushed forward before threading a perfect pass into Jesus. The Brazilian looked up and played the ball across goal to the back post where Saka completed a move started and finished in Hale End.
That would separate the teams at the half, what was incredible was that we only held a one-goal advantage as two more golden chances went begging before the break.
Odegaard latched upon a loose pass on halfway by Soungotou Magassa and breezed past Kehrer to allow him 40 yards to tuck the ball past Majecki, but he dragged his effort agonisingly wide of the far post. Soon after, Gabriel Martinelli did the same after our skipper forced a high turnover; and while the offside flag did go up, replays showed VAR could have intervened in our favour.
We had dominated the first 45, but Monaco began the second half looking more like a side who had won three of their last five Champions League fixtures.
Just a minute after the restart we got an indication of how costly our missed opportunities could be as Kehrer powered a header just wide to get nerves jangling, and on 63 minutes they came even closer when some sloppy play inside our half allowed Takumi Minamino to find Breel Embolo inside the box whose shot on the turn rippled the side netting.
But with 13 minutes to go, we managed to kill the game off thanks to a huge blunder by the French giants’ defence. Kehrer and Mohammed Salisu attempted to play out from the back inside their own box and fed the ball back to Majecki who under pressure from Havertz, passed straight to Saka who had the simple task of completing his brace.
That lifted the pressure with Monaco knowing the game was up, and the final stages were a procession that saw us add to our tally.
Mikel Merino saw a shot blocked before Saka’s eyes lit up at the chance of a hat-trick, but his effort was neatly nudged into the net by Havertz to give the scoreline a more flattering, but deserved, feel and see us stretch our unbeaten Champions League run at Emirates Stadium to eight matches.
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