Galatasaray gunned down

Arsenal ignited their Champions League campaign last night with a 4-1 thrashing of a feeble Galatasaray side, with Danny Welbeck grabbing a hat-trick in a one-sided Group D clash in north London.

Galatasaray had never won in nine previous visits to England, and, once Welbeck had punished them twice in the first half-hour, their resistance crumbled. Alexis Sanchez ended the match as a contest with Arsenal's third goal before half-time.

Welbeck completed his hat-trick shortly after the break and the only blot on Arsenal's copybook was a needless red card for goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny for rashly bringing down Burak Yilmaz.

After their opening-night loss to Borussia Dortmund, victory lifted Arsenal into second place behind the German club with three points. Galatasaray and Anderlecht have one point apiece.

Galatasaray's supporters showed plenty of passion at The Emirates, keeping up a cacophony of sound for most of the first half.

Their team were, however, harmless, providing the perfect opposition for an injury-hit Arsenal side that badly needed a win.

After a brief lull, the home side went in front when Welbeck curved his run to meet a slide-rule Sanchez pass and planted his shot through the legs of Fernando Muslera.

After 31 minutes Welbeck held off a flimsy challenge from Felipe Melo to bound clear and slot his shot past Muslera.

That sparked the Gala fans into starting their own firework display in the corner. Once the smoke cleared Arsenal continued to reduce the Turkish defence to ash.

Mesut Ozil had time to pick a pass and did so with panache, setting Sanchez free to make it 3-0.

It took Welbeck only seven minutes after the break to complete his first senior club hat-trick, finishing off a flowing passing move with a deft flick after a clever pass by Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.

A runaway Arsenal display was checked in unlikely circumstances on the hour when Szczesny rushed off his line and took out Yilmaz, giving referee Gianluca Rocchi little option but to send the Pole off.

After Sanchez was substituted to make way for Arsenal's replacement keeper David Ospina, Yilmaz converted the penalty.

• Swiss champions FC Basel claimed another English Premier League scalp when they beat a sloppy Liverpool 1-0 with a Marco Streller goal in Basel, Switzerland.

The Basel captain turned the ball in from close range after goalkeeper Simon Mignolet saved a goal-bound header seven minutes into the second half as the Swiss pulled off another European upset.

Basel, who bounced back from a 5-1 mauling by Real Madrid in their opening game, have previously beaten Chelsea and Manchester United in the Champions League in the last four seasons and knocked Tottenham Hotspur out of the Europa League.

• In Sofia, Bulgaria, Karim Benzema came off the bench to score 13 minutes from time and give holders Real Madrid a patchy 2-1 win at resilient Ludogorets.

Lively Brazilian midfielder Marcelinho fired Ludogorets - making their home debut in the group stage - ahead after eight minutes when he headed home from close range.

Cristiano Ronaldo had a 10th-minute penalty saved but he made no mistake when handed another chance to score from the spot 15 minutes later, netting his 69th Champions League goal.

Real moved on to six points from two games when Benzema finished off a precise left-wing cross by Marcelo.