Arsenal close to nailing down top eight finish as limited Monaco are seen off

Champions League Matchday 6/8

Arsenal (1) 3 Saka 34, 78 Havertz 88

AS Monaco (0) 0

They made slightly heavy weather of it by passing up a glut of chances, but Arsenal once again did just enough to ensure maximum points in a home group match.

Bukayo Saka scored twice - one a beauty, the other a gift - before an apparent own goal from former West Ham defender Thilo Kehrer, credited to Kai Havertz, gave the final score a more realistic sheen as the Gunners continue their gentle passage towards the last 16.

It's three wins out of three at home without conceding a goal and even though they have not been tearing up trees, the new format merely requires a moderate level of competence in order to progress. The real battles and jeopardy are still unlikely to come before the knockouts.

It was seventh v eighth at start of play - but there was precious little evidence of equal status on show for most of the evening - especially during a first-half that should have yielded more than one goal.

Arsenal were beaten 3-1 by Monaco in a round of 16 tie when the teams last met at the Emirates in the Champions League, nine years ago, but the French side did not have anyone comparable to Dimitar Berbatov - one of the scorers on that inauspicious night.

Swiss striker Breel Embolo can be a handful on his day but got limited service. Aleksandr Golovin did go close with a curler from just outside the box, but the Gunners were well on top after a quiet start and but for some profligate finishing, would have got the job done and dusted by the interval.

As it was, they scored a lovely goal when Myles Lewis-Skelly did his long-term prospects no harm at all with a superb eye-catching pass that set Gabriel Jesus free on the left for the low cross that Saka tapped in at the far post.

That goal was scant reward for a half full of spurned chances - two of them one on ones. Jesus and Odegaard were both guilty of failing to put away those golden openings - thwarted by the legs and arms of a man-spreading Radoslaw Majecki.

Jesus and Martinelli both missed further very presentable chances to make the evening more of a stroll.

Monaco started the second half determined to make Arsenal pay for the reprieve granted them. They looked far less insipid and Embolo's shot on the turn almost made it 1-1.

But in the end, some crazy defending from Monaco ushered in a second goal - Majecki and Mohammed Salisu making a hash of playing out of defence and coughing up the ball under pressure from a newly-arrived Havertz. It fell perfectly for Saka to claim his second of the night.

Kehrer seemed to get the final touch ahead of Havertz to turn the ball past his own keeper in the final knockings but no one seemed to mind Havertz gaining the plaudits.

So two teams with identical records at the outset of three wins and a defeat from five games and 10 points are now divided.

Victory puts the Gunners in sight of the knockouts without needing an extra play-off round. To finish the job, they just need to avoid a slip-up in their final two games - at home to Dinamo Zagreb on January 22 and away to Girona a week later. They are now third in the 36-team division, with eight going through automatically.

Monaco - runners-up to Jose Mourinho's Porto in the 2004 final - are currently third in French League 1. A September home win over Barcelona set them up for a good tilt at reaching the last 16 themselves. But they only impressed briefly at the start of the second half.

Gunners: (4-3-3) Raya - Partey, Saliba, Kiwior, Lewis-Skelly (Timber 64) - Odegaard (Nwaneri 79), Merino, Rice (Jorginho 64) - Saka, Jesus (Havertz 72), Martinelli (Trossard 64)

Monaco: (4-2-3-1) Majecki - Vanderson (Teze 81), Kehrer, Salisu, Caio Henrique - Magassa Minamino h/t), Camara (Matazo 81) - Akliouche, Golovin, Ben Seghir - Embolo (Ilenikhena 81)

Attendance: 60,157