Arsenal threaten to turn the European pecking order upside down as they maul a stunned Real

A box office clash, if ever there was one : Picture by @YTJourno

Champions League Quarter-Final 1st leg

Arsenal (0) 3 Rice 58, 70, Merino 75

Real Madrid (0) 0 Camavinga s/o 94

Who saw this coming?

The best night of Mikel Arteta's reign. Arsenal's best performance of the season by a country mile.

If there was a way to bottle the sheer elation that cascaded from the stands, the makers would earn themselves enough from this night alone to retire on a fortune.

The Gunners were good in the first half. Bukayo Saka tormented David Alaba to create openings. But no-one was getting remotely carried away.

But very carried away was how everyone was after an astonishing second half and the most exhilarating night the Emirates has surely experienced.

Carlo Ancelotti's 15-times European Champions - who have won it twice in the past three seasons - were knocked out of their silky stride by the sheer 100mph effort from the men in red and then blown away by two astonishing Declan Rice free kicks and a sweet finish from Mikel Merino.

Ah Merino. The Spaniard getting back at the dominant force in his home country on behalf of all the other teams tired of the Blancos' eternal superiority.

To smash in one perfect free-kick in a game of this magnitude would have been sensational. To do it twice was simply out of the this world. Take a bow Declan Rice "We got him half price" was the familiar, delirious refrain.

It was the first time he had taken a direct free-kick from that position, let alone score. And it was Arsenal's first since a game against Burnley five years ago, according to Arteta.

Both set pieces, 12 minutes apart, were won by Saka, dancing across the penalty area and being fouled by players shadowing but unable to get the ball off him.

It was remarkable that Saka - only just back after a long lay-off - was able to last 74 minutes before making way for Leandro Trossard. It was some shift from the winger.

Picture by @YTJourno

And what a composed, mature display from Myles Lewis-Skelly, who set up Merino for the third that sent the stadium into the type of frenzy that has been rarely seen since it first hosted games the year after Arsenal last crossed swords with legendary Madrid on their way to the 2006 final in Paris..

On that occasion, they held on to a 1-0 win in Madrid with a stirring 0-0 draw in the return match. Maybe once again the sight of those famous shirts can stir something in the Gunners when they return to the Bernabeu next week.

Needless to say, even a 3-0 lead is no guarantee of progress to a semi-final meeting with either PSG or Aston Villa, but it is one hell of an advantage to have in the locker. It should be some night in the Spanish capital.

Madrid will have to do it without Eduardo Camavinga, who picked up a silly second yellow card in injury time to leave Madrid with 10 men for the final minutes.

They will also need their star players to do much ,more than they did here. Kylian Mbappe and Vinicius Junior did have their moments in the first 45 but faded badly after the break as Arsenal overwhelmed them.

Jude Bellingham and Rodrygo were quiet too - in stark contrast to the increasingly influential Rice, who was at his swashbuckling best. He looks made for this stage

There could and probably should have been even more savaging of Madrid during that blistering second half in particular. It needed several excellent saves from Thibaut Courtois to limit the damage. Even so, the "Are you Tottenham in disguise" chant got the airing it deserved during these pinch-yourself moments.

Gunners: (4-3-3) Raya - Timber (White 91), Saliba, Kiwior, Lewis-Skeyy - Odegaard, Partey, Rice (Tierney 80) - Saka (Trossard 74), Merino, Martinelli

Real: (4-4-2) Courtois - Valverde, Raul Asencio, Rudiger, Alaba (Fran Garcia 79) - Rodrygo (Brahim Diaz 85), Modric (Lucas Vazquez 71), Camavinga, Bellingham - Mbappe, Vinicius Junior