Wednesday’s briefing: Arsenal hit seven as Aston Villa also win in Europe

Arsenal thrashed PSV Eindhoven 7-1 in the Champions League in a stunning return to form while Aston Villa also enjoyed a good night in the competition on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Liverpool boss Arne Slot was also speaking about his side’s game against Paris St Germain on the day further details emerged about his sending-off in last month’s Merseyside derby.

Mikel Arteta’s side all but secured their place in the quarter-finals as they ran out emphatic winners in the first leg of their last-16 tie at the Philips Stadion.

The Gunners may have suffered some costly slips in the Premier League title race of late, but they wasted little time in proving they remain firm contenders on the European front.

Jurrien Timber, Ethan Nwaneri and Mikel Merino all found the target inside half an hour.

Noa Lang replied from the penalty spot, but two goals from Martin Odegaard and further efforts from Leandro Trossard and Riccardo Calafiori completed a rout.

Aston Villa also put one foot in the last eight after two goals in the last 10 minutes secured an impressive 3-1 win at Club Brugge.

The tone for a glorious night in Belgium was set after just 135 seconds when Leon Bailey fizzed his side in front.

Maxim De Cuyper brought Brugge level in the 12th minute but Villa’s late flurry, with Brandon Mechele’s 82nd-minute own goal followed by Marco Asensio’s penalty six minutes later, meant they took a firm grip on the tie.

Referee Michael Oliver claimed Liverpool boss Arne Slot told him he would be to blame if the Reds did not win the Premier League, it has emerged.

Slot and his assistant Sipke Hulshoff were both sent off by Oliver in a stormy end to last month’s 2-2 draw with Everton at Goodison Park.

The pair had both confronted the official after the hosts’ James Tarkowski scored a dramatic stoppage-time equaliser. They have since been given two-match touchline suspensions and fined for their behaviour by an independent regulatory commission.

In its newly published written reasons, the commission revealed Oliver had described Slot as “confrontational and aggressive” in his match report.

He added that Slot told him: “If we don’t win the league, I’ll ******* blame you.”

Slot admitted the charges but insisted he said: “If we don’t win the league, I will have you to thank for that.”

Slot’s focus is now on Wednesday’s game at PSG, ahead of which he has been downplaying plaudits for the Premier League leaders’ outstanding season to date.

“The best team in Europe has to win the Champions League, but we are far away from that,” he said.

Newcastle would be “crazy” to consider selling star players like Alexander Isak this summer after their latest accounts showed a big drop in losses, chief executive Darren Eales has said.

The Magpies had lost in excess of £70million in the 2021-22 and 2022-23 accounting periods after heavy investment in players like Isak, Sandro Tonali and Bruno Guimaraes.

Player sales since, allied to a 28 per cent growth in revenue bolstered by participation in last season’s Champions League, led to the club announcing losses of £11.1million on Tuesday for the year ending June 30, 2024.

Eales said: “We’ve got that wish and desire to keep our key players. We have no intention at all of those players being moved on. It’d be crazy for us to consider it.”

The first legs of the second four Champions League last-16 ties take place.

As well as Liverpool’s clash with PSG at the Parc des Princes, there is a mouth-watering all-German clash between Bayern Munich and Bayer Leverkusen.

LaLiga leaders Barcelona are in action at Benfica while Feyenoord host Inter Milan.

Women’s Super League leaders Chelsea will hope to take another step towards the title as they take on Leicester.