Ex-Rangers star Mikel Arteta exacted a semblance of Ibrox revenge as Arsenal humbled PSV Eindhoven in the Champions League.
The Gers support is still licking its wounds after a 5-1 demolition in the Philips Stadion saw PSV progress to the Champions League group stages at the expense of their club.
That result is supposed to shown up a substantial gap in quality between Rangers, PSV and the Champions League level as the club prepare to kick off their European campaign in the Europa League.
But in an even starker reminder to the Rangers support, Arsenal have just come along and blown this talented PSV side away 4-0 in London.
Rangers, whose stuttering form and unconvincing summer rebuild has fans heaping the pressure on Michael Beale, might be relieved to have avoided another season of these kinds of batterings.
Ex-Rangers star Mikel Arteta guides Arsenal to PSV battering
Ex-Rangers midfielder Mikel Arteta is the man in charge of Arsenal and perhaps there’s a subplot, if not a genuine sentiment, of Ibrox revenge in this victory over PSV Eindhoven.
Bakayo Saka, Leandro Trossard and Gabriel Jesus had a stunned PSV Eindhoven 3-0 down before we’d even reached half-time with Rangers’ ominous Champions League record perhaps in their sights.
Last season’s Ibrox side, quite depressingly, holds the title of the worst-ever performing group stage team in Champions League history.
But PSV managed to all-but stop the onslaught in the second half before conceding to Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard for the game’s final goal in a 4-0 rout.
The victory is worth a cool £2.4m (€2.8m) to Arsenal and it’s the sort of money which continues to grow the gap between the footballing elite and the rest of us.
The behaviour of several PSV stars around the match has not earned them many fans at Ibrox it’s fair to say but it’s a bit empty to suggest we’ll enjoy Arsenal’s victory.
The Champions League is undoubtedly a step above anything which Rangers can currently attest to and PSV – in the competition for the first time in five years – are probably in the same boat.
