Noni Madueke scored twice to fire Arsenal to a 3-0 victory at Club Brugge and all-but assure their qualification for the Champions League knockout stages with two group matches to play.
Madueke opened his Arsenal account against Bayern Munich a fortnight ago and the England international was at it again here in Belgium after 25 minutes.
The former Chelsea man picked up the ball just inside the hosts’ half before shrugging off the attention of left-back Joaquin Seys and then unleashing a venomous 22-yard strike which crashed off the underneath of the crossbar and into the net.
The second half was just 80 seconds old when Madueke had his second after he headed home Martin Zubimendi’s cross.
Gabriel Martinelli extended Arsenal’s advantage to three with a brilliant strike to become the first Arsenal player to score in five consecutive Champions League contests.
Arsenal follow Manchester United, Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester City in becoming the fifth English team to win all of their first six European Cup matches.
The top eight are assured of automatic qualification to the last 16 and Arsenal are six points clear of ninth-placed Liverpool with a superior goal difference of 13.
The north Londoners need just one point – with matches against Inter Milan on January 20 and Kazakhstan side Kairat at the Emirates a week later – to guarantee knockout European football for a third straight season.
Arsenal’s impressive 18-match unbeaten run came to an end with a stoppage-time 2-1 defeat at Aston Villa on Saturday and Mikel Arteta was forced to ring the changes for their match in Bruges with eight players unavailable.
Noni Madueke, take a bow!
Arsenal take the lead thanks to one of the goals of the season so far from Madueke 🚀@tntsports & @discoveryplusUK pic.twitter.com/LrjLdflgc6
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) December 10, 2025
Midfielder Christian Norgaard was deployed as an emergency centre-half after Jurrien Timber failed to shake off a knock he received in the loss at Villa Park.
Martin Odegaard forced a save from Tristan van den Heuvel after just three minutes before Piero Hincapie’s side-footed effort from Myles Lewis-Skelly’s miscued effort rebounded off the post.
Then the breakthrough arrived through a player who some Arsenal fans did not want to complete a £50million move from Chelsea.
Madueke navigated the noise surrounding his move across London well and although a knee injury kept him sidelined for two months, he picked up where he left off on his return – scoring in Arsenal’s 3-1 victory against Bayern Munich and unleashing a thunderbolt on 25 minutes in Bruges.
The home side ended the first half strongly with Carlos Forbs calling David Raya into action. Raya then saved well from Christos Tzolis and again from Stankovic, this time with a fine one-handed stop.
Encouragement for the Belgian team but that was over after 47 minutes when Madueke headed Zubimendi’s cross into an empty net to complete his brace.
And 10 minutes later, Martinelli made history when he cut back on his right foot and struck a wicked curling shot from outside the area which nestled into the top corner.
With strikes against Athletic Bilbao, Olympiacos, Atletico Madrid, Bayern Munich and now in Belgium, Martinelli surpassed Gabriel Jesus’s record of consecutive goals in the Champions League for Arsenal and moments later Jesus ended his 332-day injury exile when he replaced the ineffective Viktor Gyokeres on the hour mark.
Jesus came within inches of capping a brilliant evening for Arsenal only to see his right-footed strike cannon off the woodwork.
Englishman Marli Salmon, 16, was then handed his debut with eight minutes remaining on a night to remember both for the teenager and Arsenal as their unstoppable European march continued.
