Walcott at the double as he blows away Basel

Theo Walcott’s purple patch continued as he scored a first-half brace in Arsenal’s Champions League victory over Basle at the Emirates Stadium last night.

Having started their Group A campaign with a workmanlike draw at Paris St Germain, Arsene Wenger’s side were on the front foot from the off as Walcott found the net twice in the opening 26 minutes to sew up a routine 2-0 victory.

Basle, who have a good record on English soil in Europe, never looked in the game as Wenger also saw Alexis Sanchez, Alex Iwobi and Santi Cazorla star in the final home game before his 20th anniversary as Gunners’ boss on Saturday.

Walcott, who admitted that he has had a change in attitude to his game, also said he needed to repay the faith Wenger had shown in him.

And, having scored in the wins at Hull and Chelsea, he continued to do just that making it four goals in three games.

Paris St Germain joined Arsenal on four points in the group after coming from behind to win 3-1 in Bulgaria.

Ludogorets took a 15th-minute the lead through Natanael but PSG earned the points thanks to Blaise Matuidi’s equaliser and an Edinson Cavani double.

Last year’s runners-up Atletico Madrid recorded an impressive 1-0 win at home to Bayern Munich, the team they beat in last season’s semi-finals.

Belgium international Yannick Carrasco’s first-half strike earned Diego Simeone’s side victory, despite Atletico striker Antoine Griezmann missing a late penalty.

Bayern remain second in Group D after the other game between Rostov and PSV ended in a 2-2 draw.

Rostov led twice through goals from Dmitry Poloz but Davy Propper and Luuk de Jong equalised on each occasion before Propper missed the chance to win it from the penalty spot.

In Group B, Dries Mertens scored twice as Napoli romped to a 4-2 win against Benfica, while Besiktas and Dynamo Kiev drew 1-1 in Turkey.

Theo Walcott bagged a brace as The Gunners won 2-0.