Arsenal 3-0 Dinamo Zagreb: Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez keep Gunners' Champions League destiny in their own hands

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At some point, the prospect of Arsenal playing in the Europa League hit home. That cruel terrace taunt — ‘Thursday nights, Channel 5’ — just wouldn’t sound right for any team managed by Arsene Wenger.

Arsenal are a Champions League club and they have the pedigree to prove it after qualifying for the knockout phase in every one of the last 15 years.

Credit to Wenger and his team because they are hanging on in there after this emphatic victory, they really are.

Arsenal have won only two of their five fixtures in Group F and yet they will maintain their proud record in this competition if they beat Olympiacos by two goals in Greece next month. 

Alexis Sanchez was in captivating form, scoring two and setting up the opener on another typically energetic display for the Chilean

Ozil stoops to nod Sanchez's cross beyond Dinamo keeper Eduardo to give Arsenal the lead in a must-win Champions League tie

Ozil celebrates his goal which helped Arsenal seal their second win of an uneven European campaign

Ozil finished a lightning-fast counter-attack, meeting Sanchez's cross with a diving header inside the six-yard box

Sanchez celebrates his goal which seemed to put the game beyond the visitors as the Premier League side took charge of the game

Sanchez (centre) was in the right place at the right time as he clinically finished Nacho Monreal's pass to double Arsenal's advantage

Arsenal look forward to their trip to Greece in a fortnight, knowing victory by two clear goals will seal progression to the knockout stage

Sanchez took the ball round Eduardo and slotted home from a tight angle after fine work from Joel Campbell to add a deserved third

TEAMS, SAMI MOKBEL'S RATINGS, FIXTURES, PERMUTATIONS, CHAMPIONS LEAGUE TABLE AND MATCH ZONE 

ARSENAL (4-2-3-1): Cech 6, Bellerin 7.5 (Debuchy 82), Mertesacker 6, Koscielny 6, Monreal 7.5, Flamini 7, Cazorla 7 (Chambers 82), Campbell 6.5, Ozil 8, Sanchez 8.5, Giroud 6 (Ramsey 69, 6.5). Subs not used: Ospina, Gibbs, Gabriel, Reine-Adelaide

Booked: Monreal. Goals: Ozil 29, Sanchez 33, 69. Manager: Arsene Wenger 7

DINAMO ZAGREB (4-2-3-1): Eduardo 6.5, Ivo Pinto 6, Sigali 5, Taravel 6, Matel 6.5, Paulo Machado 6.5 (Coric), Santos 6.5, Antolic 6 (Henriquez 71), Pjaca 6, Rog 5.5, Fernandes 6 (Soudani 57, 6). Subs not used: Mikulic, Musa, Sovsic, Pavicic

Manager: Mamic 5

MOTM: Sanchez

Referee: Viktor Kassai (Hungary) 6.5

Attendance: 58,978

TO PLAY — Dec 9: Dinamo Zagreb v Bayern Munich, Olympiacos v Arsenal.

TO QUALIFY: Arsenal must beat Olympiacos in Greece on the final match day by more than two goals — or by one goal if they score at

least four. 

Mesut Ozil finished off a brilliant move for the first. Check out more at Match Zone

Mesut Ozil drew first blood and Alexis Sanchez scored twice in a thorough and convincing Arsenal performance.

They won easily, finally breaking down Dinamo’s defence when Ozil scored with a diving header in the 29th minute.

Arsenal impressed throughout, with Ozil, Sanchez and the deep-lying figure of Santi Cazorla sidestepping the challenges of Leonardo Sigali and Jeremy Taravel at the heart of Dinamo’s defence. Once they got going, Arsenal were relentless.

The familiar vulnerabilities, the nervousness that permeates this team when they are on Champions League duty, disappeared into the north London sky.

Arsenal’s opening goal came from a move that began when the dressing-room entrepreneur Mathieu Flamini, taking time off from his bid to become a billionaire in the energy industry, recycled the ball into the feet of Sanchez.

The Arsenal flyer turned inside, pinpointed the run of Ozil and delivered the cross for the German to steer his header bravely beyond Dinamo’s onrushing goalkeeper Eduardo. 

Arsenal settled in for the night and were breathtaking at times as Sanchez, Ozil and Cazorla slipped past their markers at will. Dinamo looked desperate.

The game was beyond the Croatians when Arsenal scored again after Nacho Monreal provided the cute, angled cutback for Sanchez to finish with a simple side-foot effort. Sanchez looks anything but jaded. At the break there were cheers from the stands when Arsenal’s supporters discovered that Bayern Munich had done them a favour by racing into a 3-0 lead over Olympiacos at the Allianz Arena. 

Sanchez saw his appeals for a penalty waved away after being brought down in the area by keeper Eduardo 

Aaron Ramsey made a welcome return to football, replacing Giroud in the second half following a lay-off with a hamstring injury

The sight of Ramsey returning to a football field for the first time since his injury sustained during the 2-0 win against Bayern Munich

Campbell had a decent game for Arsenal impressing with his forward play, but the Costa Rican was also not afraid to put the boot in

Mathieu Flamini, Sanchez and Per Mertesacker celebrate the third goal of the goal as Arsenal finished the evening in style

The tricky Santi Cazorla bamboozles Soudani and Paulo Machado as Arsenal assert their authority in the second half

OIivier Giroud connects with a header as Joel Campbell ducks out of the way during another Arsenal attack

Everything is going the Gunners’ way again.

It opens the door for Arsenal, giving them the chance to squeeze through the narrow gap in this group and qualify for the second round if they can finish the job in the Karaiskakis Stadium a fortnight today.

They have lost on all three previous visits to Greece, but this time it is a straight shootout with Olympiacos in the final group game. Whatever happens, it will be a dramatic evening.

This has a different pace, notably the one that Arsenal set as they dictated the outcome of the second half with a composed and efficient 45 minutes. Petr Cech turned into a feeder from the back as they launched their attacks from the feet of Hector Bellerin and Monreal, starting a network of passes that dodged the sliding challenges of Goncalo Santos and the captain Domagoj Antolic in the Dinamo midfield.

Arsenal should be too strong for clubs such as Dinamo and they have only themselves to blame for the defeat, along with Olivier Giroud’s red card, at the Maksimir Stadium in September.

They had more than enough to give Giroud a rest here, replacing him with Aaron Ramsey in the 68th minute and sending a revitalised Sanchez up front. The third goal had been a long time coming, but it arrived when Joel Campbell’s clever ball on the edge of the area arrived at the feet of Sanchez. He rounded the keeper after selling him with a clever dummy.

It was a neat finish, the kind of goal you can imagine the Chile forward routinely sticking away during Arsenal’s endless short-sided training ground games. 

Eduardo manages to shield the ball from the predatory Sanchez as the dogged Arsenal man chases another goal 

Cazorla lets fly with a rasping effort on a good night for Arsenal, but a greater test lies ahead with their date in Greece

Flamini, Petr Cech and Laurent Koscielny applaud the fans after Arsenal kept their European hopes alive with a convincing win

Dinamo Zagreb players joined Arsenal in applauding the supporters who had travelled all the way from north west Croatia

Arsene Wenger scowls on the sidelines, but he knows qualification for the knockout stages is on the cards for the 16th straight season

Now it is on to the big stuff, heading to Greece knowing that a two-goal cushion will guarantee a place in the last 16.

Pull that off, and it will free up those Thursday nights.