Sporting 1-5 Arsenal: Visitors record biggest Champions League away win for 21 years

Arsenal put on one of the best performances of the Champions League so far to thrash Portuguese side Sporting 5-1 away from home.

Gabriel Martinelli put Mikel Arteta’s side ahead after just seven minutes and they hardly looked back from that point.

Kai Havertz and Gabriel Magalhaes added a second and third respectively before half-time as the visitors did their best to kill the game as a contest.

Things got a little more competitive when Goncalo Inacio pulled one back for the hosts within two minutes of the restart, but a Bukayo Saka penalty in the 65th minute soon quelled any chance of a comeback.

Leandro Trossard got the fifth eight minutes from time after coming off the bench to help Arsenal move above Sporting into seventh place in the 36-team league. Sporting, meanwhile, are one place back on goal difference.

With his assist for Kai Havertz tonight, Bukayo Saka is already on 14 goal involvements for the season (all comps).

Havertz (9) is second for Arsenal in 2024-25. pic.twitter.com/Xf99Qctdca

— Opta Analyst (@OptaAnalyst) November 26, 2024

Data debrief: Arsenal wow in Lisbon

Arsenal’s 5-1 victory away to Sporting was their biggest away win in the Champions League for 21 years.

The result matched that of the scoreline they managed against Inter Milan in 2003.

It is a result that is made more impressive given that it is Sporting’s first defeat at their own ground in 14 matches in all competitions, and the only home game they have failed to win this season.