Noni Madueke scores twice as Arsenal march on by easing past Club Brugge

Noni Madueke scored twice to fire Arsenal to a 3-0 victory at Club Brugge and all-but assure their qualification for the Champions League knockout stages with two group matches to play.

Madueke opened his Arsenal account against Bayern Munich a fortnight ago and the England international was at it again here in Belgium after 25 minutes.

The former Chelsea man picked up the ball just inside the hosts’ half before shrugging off the attention of left-back Joaquin Seys and then unleashing a venomous 22-yard strike which crashed off the underneath of the crossbar and into the net.

The second half was just 80 seconds old when Madueke had his second after he headed home Martin Zubimendi’s cross.

Gabriel Martinelli extended Arsenal’s advantage to three with a brilliant strike to become the first Arsenal player to score in five consecutive Champions League contests.

Arsenal follow Manchester United, Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester City in becoming the fifth English team to win all of their first six European Cup matches.

The top eight are assured of automatic qualification to the last 16 and Arsenal are six points clear of ninth-placed Liverpool with a superior goal difference of 13.

The north Londoners need just one point – with matches against Inter Milan on January 20 and Kazakhstan side Kairat at the Emirates a week later – to guarantee knockout European football for a third straight season.

Arsenal’s impressive 18-match unbeaten run came to an end with a stoppage-time 2-1 defeat at Aston Villa on Saturday and Mikel Arteta was forced to ring the changes for their match in Bruges with eight players unavailable.

Midfielder Christian Norgaard was deployed as an emergency centre-half after Jurrien Timber failed to shake off a