OSTERSUNDS

ARSENAL WIN 4-2 ON AGG ARSENAL might not be able to win in blue but unfortunately the team they are about to face are masters at it.

While the unrecognisable Gunners crept through in the Europa League despite extending their run in their unpopular change strip to just one victory in nine attempts, it could not have been worse preparation for Sunday’s Carabao Cup final against Manchester City.

What must go on in Arsene Wenger’s mind on a night like this? Inscrutable as ever on the edge of his technical area, his hands thrust deep into the warm pockets of his winter coat, zip already fastened to save an embarrassing fumble, he thought the work had already been done with the 3-0 first-leg win in Sweden.

With a chance to win his 13th cup on Sunday, he will have mulled playfully over his team selection.

Put one or two players in the line-up who might have expected a night off such as Jack Wilshere and Hector Bellerin to keep everybody guessing as to who will get the nod against Manchester City. Give Henrikh Mkhitaryan more than kids to work with to help him build some much-needed confidence.

So wily Wenger fielded a much stronger team than anyone imagined. He was taking no chances. Thankfully, for 22 minutes, neither were Ostersunds.

Because they had enough of them. Roared on by 4,500 of their countrymen – a 10th of the population of the town – they played as though this was the biggest night of their club’s history.

The visitors won their first corner within two minutes and Brwa Nouri fluffed the first clear-cut chance and David Ospina took two goes to hold on to a much more dangerous effort from Ken Sema after 17 minutes. Former Osset Town striker Jamie Hopcutt was causing far too much consternation in the Arsenal defence and then it happened – Ostersunds scored.

Rob Holding failed to collect a simple up-and-under, the ball was whisked wide to Hosam Aiesh, and centre-back partnerin-crime Callum Chambers deflected the ball into the corner of the net.

Then, 69 seconds later, it happened again. Chambers was again a guilty party, allowing Sema to turn him far too easily and fire across Ospina to bring the game unexpectedly to life.

The Emirates, over half the seats left empty despite most of them having been sold, could not have looked more pitiful.

This was the time when the real Arsenal should have stepped up through the gears.

Galvanised by the characters bristling through the side, a few stern words, harsh looks and even the mild threat of half-time dressing room anger would have shaken the Gunners of old into action. Instead, with Ostersunds down to 10 men for the final seven minutes of the first half when Tom Pettersson, suffering a blood injury and receiving treatment down the tunnel, Arsenal could not muster so much as a shot on target. It was feeble.

Clearly Wenger was going to have to do it himself. The easy change he made was to replace Ainsley Maitland-Niles with Granit Xhaka; the tougher