FRIGHT NIGHT

ARSENAL 12 OSTERSUNDS

Arsenal transformed a gentle Wembley warm-up into a desperate scramble for europa league survival and arsene Wenger was in no mood to sugar-coat the performance as they scraped into the last 16.

‘We were complacent,’ fumed Wenger. ‘We were not focused, we were open when we lost the ball and we had no ideas when we had the ball. That’s why we were in trouble.

‘We prepared in a serious way but you have external circumstances, such as the fact we won the first game 3-0, we have a big game on sunday and people subconsciously think they have to just turn up to win. But it doesn’t work like that.’

arsenal were two goals down inside 23 minutes and were booed down the tunnel at half-time.

Ostersunds of sweden and their english manager Graham Potter may not supply the glitz and glamour they crave on european nights at the emirates stadium.

But they achieved perhaps the greatest result in their history and gave their hosts a genuine scare. It was enough for Sportsmail’s Martin Keown to confess to his embarrassment on social media.

Wenger, at least, was able to shake his team to their senses during the interval and sead Kolasinac scored the goal to soothe their nerves, early in the second half.

arsenal could not avoid defeat but the alternative route back to the Champions league remains open and hopefully they will have learned that progress cannot be taken for granted.

Far tougher challenges lay ahead in the last 16, with strong teams from spain, Germany and Italy and awkward ties in russia lurking in today’s draw.

Too many arsenal players went into the contest last night as if it was a training session. Or as if selection was a punishment and a clue to their omission from sunday’s Carabao Cup final against Manchester City.

a three-goal margin from the first leg led Wenger to think, quite understandably, that it was safe resting first-teamers, but his selection back-fired. His team were vulnerable at the back with attacking full backs, little protection and young centre halves who often defend as if they need adult supervision.

With nothing to lose, the swedes bit into tackles in midfield and sliced through the lines of blue shirts. arsenal were in their away strip because Ostersunds could only offer to play in red or white and both were judged to clash.

The shirts were not the problem, it was the attitude of those inside them.

Brwa nouri and Ken sema went close, and the warnings went unheeded as Ostersunds took the lead when Hosam aiesh broke into space behind Kolasinac and beat David Ospina. Calum Chambers got the final touch but UeFa gave it to aiesh.

Ostersunds’ english manager Potter punched the air and 4,500 away fans rejoiced. a minute later and they celebrated a second as they reduced the aggregate deficit