GUNNERS MAKE RAPID RECOVERY
ARSENAL recovered from Bernd Leno’s howler in Austria to get their Europa League campaign off to a winning start.
Gunners goal ke e p er L eno had a nightmare as he handed Rapid Vienna the lead trying to play out of defence.
And he was twice l ucky to escape further punishment after blundering.
But late goals from David Luiz and Pierre- Emerick Aubameyang got the hapless German out of jail.
The build- up to this opening Group B game had been all about the row between Mesut Ozil, left out of the Gunners squad for Europe and the Premier League, and manager Mikel Arteta.
Before kick- off, Ozil tweeted that he would be watching and cheering from home, predicting a 4- 1 win.
It turned out to be nowhere near as comfortable for his pals out in Vienna – though £ 45million Thomas Partey had an outstanding full debut.
Arteta said: “We made it harder for ourselves. It is my fault because I demand that we do these things.
“It is a part of our game. But we need to understand when we can do it and when we should kick the ball into the stands.
“Bernd has the courage to do it. We need to find the right balance, but I will keep encouraging them to do this.
“They need to understand the type of balls to play.
“But I am delighted with the way we responded after going behind.
“We scored two excellent goals – and Thomas Party was fantastic.”
Playing in front of their first crowd since March – 3,000 were allowed inside the Alli anz Stadion – Arsenal were horribly sluggish early on against an eager and fast- breaking Rapid side.
Par t e y, who was e v e r y where i n midfield, made a fine saving tackle to deny the dangerous Taxiarchis Fountas.
But then came Leno’s first moment of madness. Luiz passed back and Leno tried to play out – only for Ercan Kara to intercept his sloppy pass and set up Fountas for the simplest of goals.
Ozil tweeted encouragement: “Chin up bro! We still have enough time to turn this around!”
But the ex- Bundesliga keeper nearly did it again when his pass out found Fo u n t a s . L u c k i l y f o r Arsenal, Leno managed to scramble the ball over.
Arteta could wait no longer and on came the big guns – Aubameyang and Hector Bellerin.
Arsenal at last looked like they meant business, and when Nicolas Pepe fired in a free- kick, Luiz rose as keeper Richard Strebinger completely missed the ball to glance in an equalising header on his 50th Gunners appearance.
Incredibly, Leno nearly handed Vienna the lead again, dashing out recklessly to strike his clearance straight into Luiz but fortunately Fountas fired over this time.
Two minutes later Arsenal finally took a grip. Mohamed Elneny’s fine through pass found Bellerin and he squared for the unmarked Aubameyang to slot home.