One of the most popular maxims uttered in relation to the beautiful game is that ‘goals change matches’. Thus it was at the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday evening when Arsenal beat Atletico Madrid 4-0 in the third week of Champions League action in this season’s competition. We shall come to those goals in a moment. But it also true to say that non-goals can change matches.

Arsenal dominated the first half but, other than a deflected Eberechi Eze shot which hit the bar, the closest thing to a goal occurred when the Arsenal ‘keeper, David Raya, mistakenly tried to shepherd a ball out of play for a goal kick. He ended up conceding a throw-in which resulted in Giuliano Simeone having a shot at an open goal, Raya trying in vain to regain his ground. The ball went narrowly wide. Early in the second half, Julian Alvarez hit a terrific shot which beat Raya but came back off the same crossbar that had previously thwarted Eze. Ten minutes into the second period, the game remained goalless.

That situation changed almost immediately. Scoring from set pieces has latterly been an Arsenal speciality, frequently involving Declan Rice and Gabriel Magalhaes – which is what happened here. A free kick from Rice, a header from Gabriel and it was 1-0. No one can know what would have happened had Raya’s error been punished, or if Alvarez’s effort had gone in, but one thing is certain: Arsenal would not have won 4-0. For sure Arsenal would have carried on trying to win, although they would first need to have equalised, but for Atletico everything had now changed. A draw away from home would have been an acceptable result for them. Now they needed to score.

The decision of the Atletico manager, Diego Simeone (father of the aformentioned Giuliano), was to make a triple-substitution. There was still over half-an-hour to play so it did seem to be a rather panicky attempt at a solution, but that was the play he went for. Within ten minutes, the match was effectively over. First Myles Lewis-Skelly went on a scintillating run before delivering a perfect pass to Gabriel Martinelli whose first-time shot went in off the far post. Within the next five minutes Viktor Gyokeres, the Gunners’ expensive new striker hitherto suffering something of a goal drought, had knocked in two more from a combined distance of about eight yards. Another popular football phrase, this one about strikers who have not recently been doing much scoring, goes that ‘he’ll be happy if one goes in off his backside’. That didn’t happen here but Gyokeres’ second did go in off his thigh.

If all one knew about this match was the scoreline then one would assume that Arsenal had absolutely ripped Atletico to shreds. But the truth is that the match was won by four goals scored within a period of 14 minutes and Atletico might well have had the lead before Arsenal got their first. Plus, possibly, there might not have been quite such a complete capitulation had the Spanish players not been trying to work out who should be doing what after the three subs entered the field. Fine margins indeed.