The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
London clubs open their campaigns with victories
ARSENAL 4 VORSKLA 2
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang struck twice as Unai Emery’s first Europa League game in charge of Arsenal ended with a straightforward victory over Vorskla Poltava.
Emery is a specialist in this competition having won it three years in a row while at Sevilla and the Gunners eased to a comfortable 4-2 win to start this season’s group stage in style – although conceding two late goals will have irked the Spaniard.
Aubameyang scored in either half for an Arsenal side showing eight changes from the weekend win at Newcastle, with Danny Welbeck and substitute Mesut Ozil also weighing in with goals.
Goalkeeper Bernd Leno was handed his debut following his move to the Emirates Stadium in the summer – but the German was unable to toast the occasion with a clean sheet.
Captain Volodymyr Chesnakov pulled one back for Vorskla, who added a second as Vyacheslav Sharpar scored with the final kick of the evening.
Head coach Vasyl Sachko took his Vorskla players on a tour of London before the game and as the night wore on, the visitors began to resemble some of the famous statues which adorn the capital’s landmarks.
Much of the first half offered more than an overhang of Arsene Wenger’s final campaign with a sparsely-populated stadium, wholesale changes to the starting XI and a struggle to break down clearly weaker opposition.
But once the deadlock had been broken by Aubameyang at the end of a swift counter-attack, the night belonged to Arsenal.
PAOK SALONIKA 0 CHELSEA 1
Willian silenced PAOK Salonika as Chelsea enjoyed a winning start to their Europa League campaign in Thessaloniki.
Maurizio Sarri anticipated this would be the most difficult match of Group L, which also features Belarus’ BATE Borisov and Vidi of Hungary, but Chelsea squandered numerous chances to make this an easy evening at Stadio Toumba.
Willian’s seventhminute strike was the difference in a 1-0 victory for the Blues, who have five wins from five Premier League games, with Pedro and Alvaro Morata spurning opportunities to add to the lead.
The Brazil midfielder on the eve of the match had insisted he always wanted to stay at Chelsea after speculation of a summer move to Manchester United or Barcelona.
He was named captain for the night and his early strike temporarily quietened the raucous home support after Ross Barkley’s surge through the porous PAOK defence.