Arsenal started their 2025-26 Champions League campaign with a 2-0 win away to Athletic Club in Bilbao.
There was little to write home about from the first half. And it wasn’t until Mikel Arteta went to his bench that the Premier League side found a way through.
It was a combination of substitutes — Leandro Trossard and Gabriel Martinelli — that brought the opener in the 72nd minute with the Brazilian finishing nicely after streaking through on goal.
And it was roles reversed for the second goal, Martinelli doing well to tee up Trossard for his first goal of the season.
Mikel Arteta has mastered the art of making this Arsenal team borderline impenetrable.
They are five games into this season and they have conceded just one goal. And that one goal, you might remember, was a firecracker of a free kick from Liverpool’s Dominik Szoboszlai at Anfield.
A new record
The win over Bilbao makes the Gunners the first team to win six games in a row against Spanish opposition in European competition, an impressive feat that Arteta will undoubtedly be proud of, given his roots.
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It took the North Londoners a while to get going in the Basque Country, but once they did, they swept past Valverde’s side and deservedly set this record.
This record has been two years in the making for the Gunners.
Arsenal’s first result en route to achieving this feat came back in October 2023, when Arteta’s outfit beat Sevilla 2-1 in Southern Spain, courtesy of goals from Martinelli and Gabriel Jesus.
They then won the reverse fixture 2-0 against Sevilla at the Emirates in that group stage, with Trossard and Bukayo Saka giving them all three points on that night.
The third win came over a year later, when Arsenal beat Girona 2-1 away in their final match of the League Phase last season, in January. Goals from Jorginho and Ethan Nwaneri did the trick.
Then came the famous two-legged win over Real Madrid in the quarter-final back in April, beating Los Blancos 3-0 in N5, and 2-1 at the Bernabeu, before Tuesday night’s triumphant win at San Mames.
