Arsenal star becomes needless suspension risk as Madrid showdown looms in Champions League

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Evening Standard

·5 de marzo de 2025

Arsenal star becomes needless suspension risk as Madrid showdown looms in Champions League

Key Gunners player is now one more booking away from an automatic one-match ban, with cautions not wiped until after the quarter-finals

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The Gunners all-but secured a place in the quarter-finals of Europe’s revamped elite club competition as they put the ongoing attacking injury woes and recent scoring troubles that saw the collapse of their Premier League title bid to one side with a 7-1 demolition of PSV Eindhoven in the first leg of their last-16 tie in the Netherlands on Tuesday night.

It was truly a night to remember for Arsenal as they made history as the first team ever to score seven goals in a Champions League knockout game away from home, against a team that had dumped out Juventus in the knockout play-offs, with captain Martin Odegaard notching a brace to go along with goals from Timber, Ethan Nwaneri, Mikel Merino, Leandro Trossard and Riccardo Calafiori.

The only slight downside to an otherwise tremendous evening for Mikel Arteta’s side was a needless caution picked up by right-back Timber, who was booked for time-wasting with just over 20 minutes to play at Philips Stadion despite his side holding a commanding 5-1 lead at the time. He was then replaced by Ben White.

That was the Dutch international’s second yellow card in the Champions League this season after he was also booked in the 3-0 home win over Dinamo Zagreb back in January, with three yellows in the competition leading to an automatic one-match ban.

Arsenal’s enormous six-goal advantage in the tie surely means that Arteta can afford to rest several key first-team players including Timber for next Wednesday’s second-leg clash with PSV at the Emirates Stadium, meaning he should avoid the possibility of being banned for the opening (home) game of a quarter-final tie that will be against either Real Madrid or Atletico Madrid next month, with Los Blancos 2-1 ahead after Brahim Diaz’s winning goal at the Santiago Bernabeu.

However, yellow cards in the Champions League are not reset until after the quarter-final stage, meaning another booking for Timber in the first leg against one of the Madrid teams at the Emirates would see him banned for the second leg out in Spain.

Timber has also been booked seven times in the Premier League so far this season, missing a match against Brighton in January after his fifth yellow against Brentford led to a one-match ban.

Thomas Partey and Myles Lewis-Skelly were also shown yellow cards against PSV, but neither player had previously been booked during the league phase.

Lewis-Skelly was fortunate not to receive a second yellow and be sent off for the third time in just over a month - with the first dismissal at Wolves later rescinded - and the second time in as many games following a risky first-half challenge on Richard Ledezma and was replaced by Calafiori 10 minutes before the break, with Arteta admitting afterwards that he did not want to take any risks.