Mikel Merino did not step away from the question after Arsenal's 3-0 win over Lille in Arsenal vs Lille. Asked about the quadruple, he said: "Absolutely." He also called the run "an absolutely unbelievable run", and that frame fits a night that moved Arsenal to 14 consecutive matches won in the tournament's league phase.

Merino's belief after Lille

The scoreline itself was only part of it. Arsenal have started this season with nine victories from 10 matches, and they have won both of their Champions League games so far. They have scored 4 and conceded 0 in the competition, which is a tidy enough platform for a team talking openly about every major trophy on the table.

Merino's stronger point came when he expanded on the ambition. "The goal and objective is to win the Champions League, to win the Premier League, to win everything," he told standard.co.uk. He added: "That's what the manager wants. That's what the fans want. That's what we as players want, too."

That is not the language of a squad hoping to stay in the conversation. It is the language of a group that believes its form has given it permission to think bigger, and the next checkpoint comes next week's trip to Bayern Munich.

Arteta's tweaks and the bench impact

Eberechi Eze was just as interested in the way Arsenal finished the job as in the result itself. Speaking after the game, he said: "I think it was just more of the same. There were slight details that we obviously tweaked and changed to give us a bit more dominance, but it was more of the same."

He also pointed to the players who came off the bench. "We were doing a lot in the first half as well, and I think the players that came on as well really helped us to push on. That was an important impact," Eze said.

That lines up with the way the match opened up after the break. Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard and Kai Havertz were introduced in the second half, and Arsenal pulled clear with a burst that ended the game at 3-0. Eze's own night ended with his maiden goal of the campaign and an 8.2 rating against Lille.

Mikel Arteta said the decisive change was positional rather than wholesale, with Arsenal's technical level improving after the break. That fits the evidence on the pitch. The substitutions mattered, but so did the way Arsenal kept control long enough for them to matter.

The cleaner takeaway is that the score did not just protect a perfect European start, it also backed up the mood around the squad. Arsenal leave Lille with 14 straight league-phase wins in the Champions League, and Bayern Munich is the next test.

FAQ

Did Arsenal beat Lille 3-0 in the Champions League?

Yes. Arsenal beat Lille 3-0 in the Champions League and followed that with talk of belief, depth and a possible quadruple. Mikel Merino said, 'Absolutely,' when asked about the target, while Eberechi Eze pointed to small half-time tweaks and the impact of the substitutes.

How many consecutive Champions League league-phase matches have Arsenal won?

Arsenal have now won 14 consecutive matches in the tournament's league phase. They have not lost a Champions League league-phase match since the defeat to Inter Milan in November 2024.

What did Eberechi Eze say about Arsenal's second-half changes against Lille?

Eze said Arsenal made 'slight details' at half-time to create more dominance, but added that it was mostly 'more of the same'. He also said the players who came on 'really helped us to push on' and called it 'an important impact'.

Written by Jack Mercer with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 4 outlets. How we work →