Ozil delivers in Emery’s hour of need
UnAi Emery roared
‘ Vamos!’ when Sokratis thumped home Arsenal’s decisive third.
You didn’t need to be fluent in Spanish to understand what it meant to the Gunners manager. His contorted expression said it all. Crisis averted.
That is exactly what it would have been had Arsenal suffered embarrassment here.
Trailing 1-0 from the first leg, they had little margin for error against BATE Borisov — even though the gulf in class between the two sides was abundantly clear.
But in what had the potential to be an extremely anxious ious night, Arsenal nal kept their nerve e to reach the Europa League last 16 — headers from Shkodran Mustafi and Sokratis adding to Zakhar Volkov’s s early own goal.
At times, their heir performance lacked cohesionon and appeared disjointed. itd
But at this stage of the season, results outweigh performances. Emery, who has won this competition three times, knows that more than most.
He said: ‘We can win the Europa League, but it’s very difficult. There are a lot of teams who could play in the Champions League, some big teams.’
in his time of need, Emery turned to Mesut Ozil, recalled to the starting Xi despite the lingering doubt over his future at the club. By the end of the evening, the German was wearing the armband. it took four minutes for Arsenal to wipe out the deficit from their first-leg loss, VolVolkov turning ininto his own nnet under pressure from Henrikh Mkhitaryan. Ozil was fully involved asa Arsenal wentw for the jugular.ju The patternpa of their play flows far more fluentlyfluent when the German is in the team.t Given BATE’s quality, or rather lack of, we should reserve judgement on Ozil for another occasion. The fans made their feelings crystal clear, affording Ozil the loudest cheer of any Arsenal player as their names were read out before kick-off. Supporters want him starting every week. This performance will not have quelled all of Emery’s questions, but it’s a start. ‘He did well, my message to him is to carry on like this, to be available like he has for two weeks,’ said Emery.
‘Today was like we want him. He wants to be with us and today he has shown us.’
Arsenal could have been three up inside eight minutes but the threat of conceding was clear, particularly in the ninth minute, when Stephan Lichtsteiner cleared off the line from Stanislav Dragun.
in the 39th minute Arsenal took the lead in the tie, Mustafi powering home a header from Xhaka’s corner.
Emery was forced into a 56th- minute substitution, Laurent Koscielny limping off with an ankle problem to be replaced by fit-again Sokratis — though Emery insisted the move was precautionary.
A minute later former Arsenal player Alexander Hleb was given a hero’s reception by the home supporters when introduced by BATE manager Aleksey Baga.
But there were louder cheers a few seconds later when Sokratis thumped home another header from Xhaka’s inswinging corner to erase any doubt of the outcome.