Arsenal 3-0 Lille: Mikel Arteta's side will face harder games than this but they are already beginning to look formidable in their Champions League quest, writes OLIVER HOLT

The death of Ken Friar was announced on Tuesday. A lad who was hired as a match-day messenger boy at Highbury when he was 11 years old in 1945 and rose to become the club secretary, managing director and Life President, Friar had as much claim as any man to be known as Mr Arsenal.

And on Tuesday evening, the modern club that he helped to build, the club to which he devoted his life, showed exactly what it has become and the debt it owes him. Depleted by injuries, the champions of England breezed past Lille 3-0 in their second match of this season’s Champions League opening stage to maintain their 100 per cent record in the competition.

A quiet first half was followed by an exuberant second period when Arsenal showed off their considerable class. Decorated by brilliant goals from Jurrien Timber, Eberechi Eze and Bukayo Saka, it was another exhibition of the confidence Arsenal feel in their position at the summit of the English game.

Mikel Arteta came into the press conference and asked for quiet. He wanted to speak about Friar. ‘He was the soul of this football club,’ Arteta said. ‘This stadium would not have been built were it not for him. I’m sure he would have been very happy to see the way the boys played. I know he was very proud of them. The legacy he leaves will be forever.’

After the game, the fans streamed out of the ground, happy again at what they had witnessed and the galaxy of stars they have amassed here in north London. They poured across the Ken Friar Bridge and down into Arsenal tube station and dreamed the dreams that Friar had once dreamed, too.

Harder games than this, against Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund and Real Madrid are still to come but Arsenal are a side who have barely got out of first gear and are already beginning to look formidable. The hope that they can go one step further than last season, when they fell in the final to PSG, still burns brightly inside them.

Arsenal started the game with what almost looked like a weakened team. Saka, Odegaard and Kai Havertz were all on the bench. The line-up was also missing Piero Hincapie and Martin Zubimendi, who were both injured, bizarrely, in a post-match training session at Elland Road following the weekend’s victory over Leeds United.

Jurrien Timber opened the scoring in style with a delightful dinked finish to the far post

Eberechi Eze got his first goal of the season in all competitions to double Arsenal's lead

Bukayo Saka came off the bench to assist Arsenal's second before putting the game to bed with one of his own

But then Arsenal boast so much depth that there is really no such thing as a weakened team at The Emirates any more. Their first eleven was still formidable. Their bench was still strong. And they had already got their European campaign off to a fine start with their win over Napoli in Italy last month.

It took Arsenal 20 minutes to create the first clear opening of the game. Until then, it had been soporific but Timber found space on the right side of the box and cut the ball back to Bruno Guimaraes six yards out. Guimaraes had the goal at his mercy but sidefooted it wide.

Timber was the provider again a minute later but this time Mikel Merino headed the Dutchman’s cross straight into the hands of Berke Ozer. Chances were opening up at the other end, too: Ayase Ueda slotted the ball into the net but had strayed narrowly offside when the ball fell to him.

The game fell back into its torpor until ten minutes before the interval when Myles Lewis-Skelly broke forward from left back. He cut the ball back to Eze ten yards out. Eze, like Guimaraes before him, tried to sidefoot the ball, deliberately and precisely, past Ozer but his shot was too close to the goalkeeper, who saved it comfortably.

Arsenal nearly broke the deadlock on the stroke of half-time when Lewis-Skelly played a square pass to Guimaraes on the edge of the box. The former Newcastle midfielder struck his shot well and it took a deflection off the head of a defender. Ozer was wrong-footed but not enough to adjust his position and claw the ball away.

The Gunners' excellent performance was the perfect tribute to Mr Arsenal, Ken Friar.

Guimaraes ran at the Lille defence and tumbled over the outstretched leg of Alexsandro, who had got himself in a tangle. Guimaraes claimed a penalty, Alexsandro was outraged by the accusation and the referee waved play on. To general disappointment inside the ground, a VAR check found no reason to alter the decision.

And so the game droned on, searching for relief from the stalemate. It came midway through the half and it was worth the wait. Noni Madueke played a pass into Timber and Timber turned past his man beautifully. The goalkeeper and Nabil Bentaleb tried to close Timber down but he lifted it delicately over Ozer and it floated into the net.

Arteta called for the cavalry immediately after that. He brought on Saka, Havertz and Odegaard and they combined straight away to feed the ball to Eze on the edge of the box. Eze hit his shot first time and it whistled past Ozer and nestled in the bottom corner.

Arsenal were rampant now. They scored their third goal in seven minutes when Odegaard and Havertz combined to find Saka. Saka stepped inside a challenge and, as Lille appeared to stop trying to defend, hoping for an offside decision, Saka curled his shot nonchalantly round a defender and into the bottom corner.