NICE ONE MY GUNS
Wenger’s men skating through
ARSENE WENGER last night hailed his frozen heroes.
The Arsenal boss was delighted as his men ignored icy weather and an artificial pitch to pull off a crucial win in Sweden.
Strikes from Nacho Monreal and Mesut Ozil, plus an own goal by Sotirios Papagiannopoulos, saw the Gunners skate through an awkward Europa League last-32 first leg. Next week’s second leg should now be a formality and Wenger said: “We adapted well to the pitch.
“They were cautious at the start and we took advantage, and took control of the game once we opened the scoring.
“It was important for us not to concede a goal and win the second half. There was room to maybe
score one or two more but we won in a comfortable way.
“The risk at the start was that I didn’t know how tough the pitch would be for our players. The only risk was injury. In the end the pitch was good.”
With Arsenal struggling in the League, winning Europe’s secondary competiton looks to be their only hope of returning to the Champions League next season.
So Wenger named his strongest team but may now rest some of his stars for next Thursday’s second leg.
The Carabao Cup final against Manchester City is just three days later at Wembley.
Wenger added: “I will try to win the second leg, but I will maybe rotate and play the players who didn’t play last night.”
Ostersunds were outclassed and missed a late penalty when David Ospina saved Tom Pettersson’s kick.
Wenger said: “It was important not to tarnish our performance. It would have left a bitter taste.”
New signing Henrikh Mkhitaryan said: “Why can we not win the Europa League? We have to keep fighting and in the end see where we’re at.
“We have to focus on every game regardless to ensure success.”