Seven heaven for Arsenal in Eindhoven | Aston Villa win 3-1 in Brugge | Can Newcastle keep hold of Isak?
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Welcome to Back Pages, bringing you everything you need to know about the biggest sports stories making the headlines in the morning's newspapers. I'm Teddy Draper and joining me are Miguel Delaney from The Independent and Martin Hardy from The Times. Welcome to you both.

Let's start with Arsenal's win over PSV. Martin, come to you with the back page of that Guardian we saw moments ago. Gunners glee over Dutch demolition job. Declan Rice acknowledges the travelling fans with the Andro Trossard scorer of their side's fifth. PSV won Arsenal 7. Martin, that was a little bit ridiculous, wasn't it? Yeah, who needs a striker?

You know, he may just have saved himself, Arsenal may just have saved £60m, although I am slightly tongue-in-cheek. They were brilliant tonight and everything that Mikel Arteta wants from his team, they delivered. I spoke to a couple of managers the last few days from various levels of the games and they stress about

injured players creates an opportunity for somebody else to come in. So you wouldn't have been expecting Mikel Mourinho to play up front. You know, Wanyeri's been one of the stories of the season. But to get to the point where they were both so effective tonight, Odegaard and Declan Rice are absolutely brilliant.

Declan Rice just led by example and you could probably sit here all night and say the good things that he did, but in the 15th minute, PSV hit the woodwork and at that point the crowd are up for it. And it's less than two minutes later when Declan Rice produces this brilliant cross for Timber to put Arsenal ahead, turns the game on its head and from then on, Arsenal are just all over PSV. Declan Rice was at the heart of most things when Odegaard scored his goal, he was right beside him, he could have done it himself.

I'm thinking it was about the 80th minute when Arsenal are 6-1 up and they defend a corner and he makes this break to the halfway line, full speed, and he's picked out by a throw by David Rea. The game has won, the tie has won, they should be getting ready for Madrid.

he then charges to the byline and wins his team a corner when they are walking through this game he's the player that takes the corner you can see he's blown so hard he's out of breath but he was the driving force of that team tonight there was moments of real brilliance from order guard as well that was a sign of just how good he is and that'll be a relief to arteta that he's coming back to his best the pass for calafiori's goal is just absolutely sublime it's kind of that

that moment when a footballer does something that a golfer would do with just that delicate little side spin technically brilliant there were so many plus points for Arteta tonight in there is probably Mikel Noreno I'm interviewing Mitny Castle a good

a good lad but a big tall player, not probably the quickest, but he occupied that role tonight as a centre forward and give them everything he had up there, give them a focal point to play off. You know, Gabriel makes the attempted block in the 15th minute that just puts off the PSV player from perhaps putting them ahead and changing this tie around, but

And of course, Wanyeri, absolutely outstanding. I think it's said he's the third youngest English player to score in knockout Champions League games. And if you want me to tell you that the two are Phil Foden and Jude Bellingham, then he's in pretty good company. This is a great night for Arsenal. They're through now. And that positivity, the goals, the momentum, the drive, they should carry that into the Premier League.

It's a tricky pre-match talk, isn't it, I think, for Peter Bosz, the PSV Eindhoven coach. Miguel, we saw that Times back page, didn't we, from goal drought to seventh heaven. Tom Olnett reporting that Arsenal became the first away team to score seven goals in a Champions League knockout match to banish their goal-scoring woes in Eindhoven. Could it be banishing those goal-scoring woes or do we have to take into account the quality of the opposition or lack of it?

You definitely have to take that into account. I mean, I don't want to use cliches like, you know, about buses coming at once or, you know, it doesn't rain, it pours. But it's probably never more applicable to a game like this. I mean, it did feel like, obviously, Arsenal have suffered frustration the last few games, you know, hadn't scored in two. And even, say, in the Nottingham Forest game, I actually thought Arsenal were really good up until they got to that final, or not even the final third, really once they got into the box. And then because they didn't have their

usual front line there they just didn't have the same zip about them the same sharpness obviously Forrest have been very good in defence for a lot of this season so then it did feel like that because PSV and like this really can't be taken out of it because they were so porously open so easy to get at that Arsenal they just suddenly they saw opportunity and suddenly I think especially after that first goal went in I think it was like it's one of those games that can be really important psychologically even if people will go on about how easy the win was rightly but

where they just, they felt that release and then started to enjoy themselves. And as Martin's talked about there, Odegaard's in the sort of move where he's like, it's like an elite golfer with every shot in his bag where he's trying all these moves. It was more like the Odegaard that we would have seen before his ankle injury this season. I know his form has been a bit of a debate this season, but I think that's a sign of how they're enjoying themselves. And while...

In the Premier League for the next few games, they're still going to have the same issues. They're still missing attackers. They still have maybe a problem. They're not going to construct attacks. I think what this win at least will do is just it means that the anxiety that was there for the last two matches won't be there in the same way. And that can be important. Certainly can be. No anxiety about the second leg at all. But let's get some reaction from the Arsenal manager, Mikel Arteta.

I really enjoyed the match. Thank you to the players for the performance that they put in. It was a big night for us against a really good side. The way they went through in the last round against Juventus was really impressive. The manner that we've done it, the way we played, the goals that we scored, thank you because it was a special night.

Well, it's obviously given us a lot of joy and confidence and belief. And then in football, it's not what we did three days ago or today. It's going to be what we do tomorrow when we go to Old Trafford, how we behave, how we play. And now we're able to win a game and that's it. Enjoy tonight because it was a very impressive performance and an unbelievable score. So we deserve that and I'll take it and keep improving as a team.

OK, well, let's talk Aston Villa with the Telegraph story. 3-1 win at Bruges. It looked tense at times, but the headline, Mings enjoys night of redemption. It was a wonderful goal line clearance from Tyrone Mings when the ball seemed destined to nestle in the bottom corner there. Martin, how impressive were Aston Villa? Was this a case of riding their luck and being clinical? For part of the game, yes. For part of it, it was staying in the game, staying

When you cover a match in Newcastle, you're very near the pitch, you see the kind of moods that the visiting managers go through, and I'm not sure there's anybody who puts more into a match than Unai Emery, who is just relentless.

Arsenal were 16th in the Premier League when he took over. In the 70th minute, this tie was still alive. He got booked because he was going so crazy on the sideline. But at that point, he was demanding... His team went high on the pitch, he was demanding more energy from them, and they found it and they create their own goal, they get the penalty, they take this 3-1 lead into the second leg, and you'd think they're pretty much close to going through now.

Yes, they weren't great for parts of the game, but they had a very good transfer window when you bring in Rashford and bring in Sensio, who comes on as well. They have forward power, that's going to help them at this time of the season. And even when you look at Tyrone Mings, the Telegraph story there was about redemption. It's a brilliant, brilliant touch to stop the ball from going in there when the scoreline is 1-1 at that stage. I did check...

it was his other knee that he did the ACL on because it's such a stretch you think the player may have injured himself and we did make much of the mistake but I think that was Tyrone Mings' third Champions League game so there's lots of players playing who are complete rookies at this level and you've got to learn fast and one of the I'm sure Miguel will talk about his piece about the Champions League starts now when it's knockout football so much is decided upon the bravery and the brilliance of defenders with the blocks and

As I said, Gabriel makes a sliding tackle which changes the direction of a shot when the scores are 0-0 and Tyrone Mings makes this slight deflection which probably he would have been a bit upset it wasn't given as a corner so they didn't even acknowledge the fact that he played this crucial role in the game.

Emery has got this great knack of winning European ties, and when you watch him on the sideline, to come back to my starting point, his energy, he demands so much from his players and they are giving so much. As I said, this was a team that was fighting relegation when he came a couple of years ago, and now they think they've got one foot in the next round of the Champions League, which is an incredible turnaround. Absolutely, it's a big turnaround, isn't it? Miguel, what's your take on Aston Villa and what might come then, potentially through to the quarter-finals of the Champions League?

Would the other managers fear coming up in a head-to-head battle with Unai Emery tactically? I think so, yeah. I mean, look, one of the great virtues of his career, as Martin mentioned there, European knockout football. And that doesn't happen by accident, because I think what's absolutely key is Emery's nous for European knockout football. I mean, I suppose one of the earlier criticisms of his career when he was at maybe wealthier clubs, like Paris Saint-Germain, like Arsenal, was that maybe his approach could be too...

reactive at that point and he was always responding to the opposition and while I think that could potentially be an issue over long league campaigns especially when your team is dominant now I have to say that's something Emery has evolved from significantly at Aston Villa but he still has the capacity to do it it's something that's very valuable in European football I mean this is the great lesson of Mourinho for so many years before the game passed him by something that hasn't actually now happened to Emery he just knows how to I mean one of his great performances or one of his great European victories

even though his record is probably more associated with the Europa League than what he did with Sevilla and then Villarreal beating Manchester United one of his great victories came in the Champions League when he just I mean Julian Nagelsmann at Bayern Munich was considered one of these kind of one of the brightest young tactical minds in that season when he was at Bayern Munich

Emery saw what he did and just picked it apart and I think there's another element to that because while Villa are a little bit unlucky in that they're on I would say the much more difficult side of the draw given there were three English teams there's the two Madrid sides and Paris Saint-Germain even though a few of them are going to knock each other out it's almost because of the quality of those sides Emery can react to that and look for ways around that and the way he has really proven himself and

And it's, yeah, I think it's one of the more fascinating storylines of this season. If Villa were to win it, despite the wealth of the Premier League now, I think they'd be probably the biggest surprise winner since 2004. In fact, I don't think we've actually had a surprise winner in the Champions League since 2004. They'd be very much in that category, albeit as a high-quality team. And of course, there is another element to that, in that given a result like tonight and a likely passage to the Champions League, well, it greatly eases any PSO concerns.

Yes, it does. Yeah, the PSR concerns could be Liverpool, of course, next if they can get past PSG. Miguel, you are in Paris, not the most glamorous of hotel backdrops from what I can see at the moment, but nonetheless, we know you're there. This is your story then in The Independent. Miguel, Liverpool beware how PSG discarded Bling Bling to become a serious Champions League force. No Mbappe, but a real threat to Liverpool, you're right here.

Yeah, look, I mean, what have we most associated with PSG throughout the Qatari ownership? Well, it was kind of the indulgence of stars. And I write in the piece that kind of one of the biggest examples of this was actually the last time they met Liverpool in the Champions League in the Anfield game, where I've got the anecdote in there where Thomas Tuchel before the match found himself having to explain to players why he had to run and press.

and he got the response why and he literally had to say to his team because this is Anfield this is one of the most difficult fixtures you're going to have what happened in that game Liverpool won in the last minute through Firmino creating a bit more space in the box basically Liverpool ran further and longer and kind of this issue of indulgence and parties and all these petty politics was for so long an issue of Paris Saint-Germain

And there was an irony, maybe not an irony because obviously, maybe given what the Qatari ownership were trying, all these sports-washing angles, they were always going to go for a certain level of star. But there was a bit of an irony to that in that in Paris, they're actually sitting on one of the three most fertile areas for footballers in the world. It's Paris, and we talked to people in recruitment, it's Paris, Sao Paulo, and South London that produces more footballers, I think, per capita than anywhere in the world.

And finally, after years of failure, really, with this approach, they decided to go in a different direction. That was to lean on youth. Because suddenly the team is filled with, I mean, there's about five or six players who regularly play, chiefly Zaire Emery, who are teenagers from the Paris area. They're complemented by Barcola, who I think has been one of the stars of this Champions League season.

and even I mean and also there's another key point here where throughout that era and Emery is an example of this PSG were almost picking squads that didn't fit the ideology of the manager that's changed now because Luis Enrique loves kind of young players he can hone

That's what they've got. And it's why they're going to throw everything at Liverpool in this game. And, of course, one of the greatest examples is Ousmane Dembele, who'd been previously seen, I suppose, as a bit of a symbol of football waste and a waste of talent in the same way as Neymar. But he's having the best season of his career. Martin, come to you then on the Alexander Isak situation with your piece in The Times. Newcastle to hold talks with Isak in a bid to stave off suitors. And as I mentioned before the break,

this is a kind of balance piece isn't it because the club's not wholly optimistic of their clout and ability to keep hold of him when the castle um released their accounts today and it shows um a great increase in turnover to 320 million um it was 140 million when the club was taking over it shows you the

rapid strides they're making. However, they are now competing against the likes of Manchester City, who are hoping to compete, who has a turnover of nearly £700 million, with Erland Haaland's contract anything up to £500 million a week, depending upon where you read it.

so there's figures that if the likes of liverpool arsenal psg um and barcelona would have shown wrestling castle newcastle just can't match at the moment um is that will be 26 next season so this is a really important part of his career 22 goals this season we now he's kind of mentioning that bracket of harland and killing mbappe when he talked about the best strikers in the world

Haaland has 49 Champions League goals, Kylian Mbappe, I think, has 55, and Alexandre Isak has one. So there's a huge problem here in that Newcastle have to become a Champions League club very, very quickly in a regular one. They don't necessarily have the finance to match, to fight those top clubs. APT and PSR has restricted how much of that Saudi Arabian public investment funds money they can actually spend.

So, there is no contract talks with Alexander at the minute. The club do have him on a contract until 2028 and Darren Eales, the chief executive, was very keen to stress, you know, for multi-year, they still, in theory, have this player. There will be conversations in the summer, there has to be, and again, Eales confirmed there would be,

But the problem will be that if Izzat wants regular Champions League football, Newcastle will see if they get there, but they're not a regular Champions League team. And in terms of salary, if you're talking £250,000 to £300,000 a week to put them in the same bracket as Haaland and Mbappe, or not even close then, but certainly getting towards them,

Then Newcastle are financially maxing themselves out in terms of the limitations of PSR. There's not much more they can do. They're trying to push the turnover as quickly as possible. It's why there was talk today about the new stadium and there's kind of a little bit of a, I wouldn't say cooling of it, but the leaning seems slightly towards moving from St James' Park again to increase revenue streams.

But that's not going to increase revenue streams this summer. That's a long way down the line by the time you get planned with Mission and build a new stadium and everything else. If that's to be the way they go, Andy Castle insists there are two options and one of them is to increase the capacity at St James'. But it means that this club that celebrated just over three years ago kind of winning the football lottery with Saudi Arabia's PIF money remain incapable of spending enough of it to get to that very top level and

Darren said to us today that the desire is still to win the Premier League, but the whole thing has been slowed down. It's a massive quandary to get out of this PSL headlock and how did Newcastle, with a £320m turnover, compete with Manchester City, who have a near £700m turnover?

it's going to take a lot of time and that may not necessarily be so attractive to players who are really coming into the prime of their careers. But we will see. Eddie Howe loves working with the player. The player is essentially happy at Newcastle. But this is a key stage of his career coming up in the summer and we'll see what will happen. And we kind of unfortunately got a vision of what Newcastle looked like without Alexander Rizac in the recent 2-0 defeat to Liverpool where they were

fairly blunt, and he will play, we think, in the Carabao Cup final. But it would be a huge loss, it would be a big blow to this project, and as I said, they will still fight and have conversation

But unfortunately, they can't match the big men with money. Well, I cover it as well. Magpies line up bumper deal for star striker Isak. Before we move on, Miguel, what's your take on the Isak situation? Would be really romantic if he can lift a trophy with him, wouldn't it? Any chance they can keep him long term? The one thing I would say there, and this is where I think that headline about bumper deal is so interesting, is PSO has also worked the other way, certainly this season, where...

because of the wealth of the Premier League because the broadcasting revenue a lot of teams or clubs from really the kind of middle tier up and Newcastle are above that now given they have been in the Champions League recently basically

the wealthiest clubs, the clubs with the biggest revenues, can't really put in the sort of offers at the moment to be attractive to this strand of stars outside the wealthiest club. And there's a few, I mean, another one is Antoine Semenyo at Bournemouth, where Bournemouth probably won 50, 60 million. Obviously, Newcastle would want more than double that, you'd think, if there was ever a serious conversation about selling Isaac. So that's, I mean, I think that's where it has skewed a little bit. And right now, I actually wonder who could afford Isaac at the sort of price that,

that Newcastle would want. And even if they say, and I'm speaking hypothetically here, if they did decide to sell him in the summer, they'd know they could immediately get an auction. And in an auction, the price goes up even more, which would say price someone like Arsenal, I think Arsenal would be more likely to go for Sesco at Leipzig, say. But that's where this contract is so crucial because...

If that does become a situation and no one does want to pay that sort of price for Isaac, then you're going to get into the theme of whether he runs his contract down, then kind of the club has to make decisions every season or whether they can kind of, they can get themselves back into the Champions League to try and make it more palatable for him to stay or sign another contract. And I think that's where there's a very interesting variable to this.

Yeah, we'll keep across the Isak situation. Let's talk about another very expensive player who made the big move to Manchester City, Jack Grealish. Sam Wallace with the opinion piece or comment here on Jack Grealish pitching in front of a couple of pints of beer there. It looks like a kind of non-salubrious event. Nothing fancy there, but Jack the lad entitled to go out. But what must...

I think this is up in your neck of the woods potentially. Martin, you've only got about 30 seconds or so. Give us your take on the Jack Grealish situation. Is it about whether he's going out or not, but whether he's going out when he's not playing and maybe not playing well?

I always backed him in that difficult first season, he then responds as part of the travel team, but the moment you saw him on the front of that bus with his top off, pretend, looking like he was Jesus Christ, you thought there's an issue here because he thinks he's done it all, and if you look since then, it's been a dramatic drop off. Pep has said there's been injuries, you want to see if this player's got the drive to repeat that season, and that is a very, very big question that only he can answer.

Thoughts, Miguel? Give us 10 seconds, 20 seconds. I'm a great fan of Grealish. I think players have to let off steam in their own way to get the best out of him. I think there's more of an issue tactically with him and Guardiola. But obviously, knowing how disciplinary Guardiola is and this sort of thing, it's just maybe another issue for him.

And finally, gents, Miguel's been writing the Champions League returns its flaws, leaving unattended benefit on a night of Champions League action. Give us your verdict. Miguel, positive, negative? I love this competition. It's when it comes alive. It should be a knockout from the start. It should be a knockout from the start. Martin, do you agree with that? Give us five seconds.

We're in March and the competition's finally got interesting. That's quite... Seems to me non-stop, the Competition Champions League. Martin and Miguel, you've spoken very well, but we do have to stop here. Thank you very much for now.