No kidding about as Emery plays it straight
BAM-BAM GETS THE GUNNERS FIRING
TWO goals either side of half-time by Pierre-emerick Aubameyang rubberstamped Unai Emery’s decision to take the Europa League a bit more seriously than in previous years.
It was a slow start by Arsenal and the road may be a long one, but winning this competition, as the Gunners boss did three years in a row at Sevilla, may well be their best route back to the big time.
Because after a pulsating week of Champions League football, this pedestrian win against a hapless bunch of European minnows in a halfempty Emirates is definitely not the big time.
Arsene Wenger used to use these Thursday evenings to Chesnakov 76, Sharpar 90+4 give the kids a runout. For Emery it was a chance to introduce nearly £50million of talent to his starting line-up.
Initially, all eyes were on Bernd Leno to see why it was that a £22.5m Germany keeper had not been made first choice the moment the ink was dry on his contract.
When one of his first touches was a floated 30-yard left-foot pass onto the chest of Stephan Lichtsteiner that Liam Brady would have been proud of, it was even harder to fathom. Clearly he is far more comfortable on the ball than Petr Cech.
For much of the game Vorskla Poltava barely tested his handling skills. Their main aim in what was the biggest game in the Ukrainian club’s 34-year history seemed to be to get as many green shirts behind the ball as possible.
Which was where that other first starter, Lucas Torreira, was supposed to come in. For a player forced to find his way into games off the bench so far, here was a chance to dictate play from the start.
But although he switched play left to right and back again, it was just in front of the Arsenal defence. Had he shown his ingenuity 25 yards further forward it might have provided the cutting edge desperately needed.
For half an hour, Arsenal dominated possession without having a shot on target. And it was a rare sustained attack from Vorskla which led to the breakthrough.
Dmytro Kravchenko’s clever step-over did not seem quite so clever when Henrikh Mkhitaryan swooped onto the loose ball and charged forward 30 yards. A simple pass to Alex Iwobi kept the momentum going and his cross was met by Aubameyang to score.
A swerving effort just before the break from the same player would probably have flattered Arsenal, although Mkhitaryan followed it up with a shot which brought a good save from Bohdan Shust.
That said, Vorskla suddenly seemed a lot easier to pick apart and three minutes into the second half Mkhitaryan crossed to give Danny Welbeck a simple close-range header. In the 56th minute, Aubameyang grabbed his second before being subbed.
Torreira joined him on the bench after a performance that though encouraging showed why Emery is giving him a gentle introduction to English football.
Mesut Ozil joined the fray and poked in a floated Lichtsteiner cross.
There was still time for the obligatory Arsenal defensive howler, Lichtsteiner allowing the ball to run through his legs to Volodymyr Chesnakov, who fired past a helpless Leno.
Vyacheslav Sharpar exposed the Gunners’ defensive frailty again in injury time with the visitors’ second goal.