Player Ratings: Athletic Club 0-2 Arsenal 

Arsenal kicked off their 2025-26 Champions League campaign with a battling victory over Athletic Club at the raucous San Mames in Bilbao 

Gabriel Martinelli and Leandro Trossard came off the bench to earn Arsenal a 2-0 Champions League win over Athletic Club in Bilbao.

Find out who impressed with View From The Armchair's inimitable Player Ratings 

David Raya: 8/10 - The Premier League's finest Libero delivers with a clean sheet and barely any use of his hands

Jurrien Timber: 8/10 - A dominant performance. Industrious down the right hand side. Had a fantastic match, his importance to this teams grows.

Gabriel: 8/10 - Commanding at the back, imperious and relishing the challenge in the 2nd half, clean sheets are this man’s food,rode his luck at times, came away with the clean sheet regardless.

Mosquera: 8/10 - What a bargain at £13m quid. Slotted in beautifully at the back, made more than one important tackle throughout, good distribution. Young, long limbs, behave -  what a signing he is.

Riccardo Calafiori: 7.5/10 - Powerful, giant, Italian supremo, while also being a bit clumsy at times with the ball at his feet, a little bit like a fine stallion trying to be a ballerina on ice, you nor I was expecting that image but here we are, memorable performance in a fantastic away win.

Declan Rice: 8/10 - Yellow carded after only six minutes. Completely handicapped by that bizarre decision, but made it to the final whistle. A great performance

Mikel Merino: 8/10 - Disciplined and controlled.  The Basque-born midfielder's attention to detail in the first half was superb, silently, almost invisibly going about his work. Showed his versatility when shifted to centre forward on 64 mins.

Martin Zubimendi: 8.5/10 - We needed a giant's performance tonight to quiten the boisterous Athletic fans. 61 per cent  possession in the second half emphasises his role in this team to help our glorious Gunners to a 2-0 win

Noni Madueke: 8/10 - Continued his fine early season form. Drew a cacophony of whistles early in the second half as Arsenal controlled the flow of the game, looked our most dangerous out up front - that was until Martinelli and Trossard's entrance.

Eberechie Eze: 7/10 - Nutmegged on 25 minutes, which bizarrely shifted the momentum in Arsenals favour, just beautiful to see him in Arsenal colours on this stage, the highest stage. Subbed on 70 minutes with bigger and better days to come

Viktor Gyokeres: 7/10 - Super close with a diving header on 26 minutes. A clash of heads with Gabriel on 31 minutes left a horrible gash on his head that will require stitches, no fresh skin fade next week for VG14. Bandaged up and good to carry on until the 64th minute, to be replaced by Trossard.

Substitutes:

Leo Trossard: 8.5/10 - Supersub with the grey bonce, made an impact from the bench and helped to turn the tide in our favour with the assist for Martinelli. Believe and get behind, don’t criticise or pour scorn, all I could hear is the Gooners in the away end lauding our Leo who made it two-nil to the Arsenal on 87 minutes to make it game, set and match - bring out those white hankies hombres.

POTM Gabi Martinelli: 9/10 - Did I, or did I not, state the boy is in need of a rest? I think I did, over and over - but 36 seconds into his entrance our boy from Brazil makes it 1-0.  Give your head a wobble if you don’t see he is world class and will go onto great things as a complete No9. The clues is in the title - football supporters - so, please get behind him. Provided the assist for the second to seal an influential cameo which once again underlined Mikel Arteta's squad's strength in depth to bag us a vital win. My POTM as he gets a bonus point for the stick he has taken recently.

Christian Norgaard: 7/10 - On for Madueke for his long-awaited Champions League debut. Brentford’s best player over the last few seasons coming on and doing a job for the Arsenal in the dying minutes to maintain a clean sheet away - you love to see it.

Piero Hincapie: 7/10 - On for Calafiori. Blimey, I must be dreaming, this squad of players has the potential to do huge things this season.

View From The Armchair Verdict:

That a wrap from VFTA - just the one reference to Athletic Cloob in the style of Roberto Martinez, which is somewhat disappointing, but we did get a reference to Califiori as an Italian stallion trying to practice being a ballarena on ice so it's got to be worth the read for that alone let’s be real.

That and a very satisfying 2-0 away win in the Champions League - who's complaining, safe travels home Gooners.

We move, it’s City at the weekend - come on you Gunners