Pep Guardiola had another night to forget on his return to Barcelona, as Lionel Messi showed why he is one of the all-time greats, while Mesut Ozil grabbed a first ever senior hat-trick to help Arsenal have some goalscoring fun in the Champions League on Wednesday.
Barcelona vs Manchester City proved to be a no-contest, with Messi hitting his second hat-trick of the season in the Champions League, while Guardiola was forced to answer questions on his goalkeeper Claudio Bravo, whose big mistake pushed the Premier League team to ten men, from which there was no coming back.
Messi opened the scoring for Manchester City in the 17th minute, jumping on a slip from Fernandinho to use those ballet skills of his to put Bravo on the ground before slotting the ball home.
Manchester City, without Sergio Aguero from the start, to their great credit, had plenty of probing spells, where they had control of the ball and even looked like opening up Barcelona, but once Bravo decided to instinctively save a shot from Luis Suarez while outside his penalty box, which gave the referee no choice but to show the goalkeeper a red card, it was game over for Manchester City.
With an extra man, Barcelona smelled blood and with Messi in the mood that he was in, it was curtains for City, with Neymar adding another late goal in the game to complete a 4-0 win.
In the other Group C game, Borussia Monchengladbach picked up their first win of their Champions League season with a 2-0 win over Celtic. Goals from Lars Stindl and Andre Hahn were enough to give the Germans the victory they needed and take them to within a point of second-placed City.
In Group A, Alexis Sanchez began what would end up being a rout with one of the most delightful chips you will see this season, as Arsenal thumped Ludogorets 6-0. After Sanchez's goal in the 12th minute, Theo Walcott made it 2-0 just before halftime with a ripper of a shot from distance.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain then ended the game as a contest right after halftime with a nice finish into the corner, before Ozil brought his goalscoring skills to the fore, netting three beautiful strikes against a crumbling defence to send Arsenal top of Group A.
PSG, though, are only behind on goal difference after the French club topped FC Basel 3-0, thanks to goals from Angel Di Maria, Lucas Moura and Edinson Cavani.
Group B opened up considerably after Napoli suffered their third consecutive defeat in all competitions, while Benfica got their knockout stage hopes back on course. Napoli went down 3-2 to Besiktas, with Vincent Aboubakar scoring a late winner, while Benfica were 2-0 winners over Dynamo Kyiv.
Group D saw the usual suspects take all three points, with Atletico Madrid getting the better of FC Rostov 1-0, courtesy Yannick Carrasco's strike, while Bayern Munich were too strong for PSV Eindhoven. Carlo Ancelotti's side won 4-1 with Thomas Muller, Joshua Kimmich, Robert Lewandowski and Arjen Robben all scoring.
Results: Group A: Arsenal 6-0 Ludogorets; PSG 3-0 FC Basel.
Group B: Napoli 2-3 Besiktas; Dynamo Kyiv 0-2 Benfica.
Group C: Celtic 0-2 Borussia Monchengladbach; Barcelona 4-0 Manchester City.
Group D: FC Rostov 0-1 Atletico Madrid; Bayern Munich 4-1 PSV Eindhoven.
