Arsenal sink Napoli to ease into last four for second year running

● Lacazette free kick seals second-leg win ● Valencia now stand in way of final spot

stunning Champions League win over Manchester City or thegoalfestatstamfordbridge as Chelsea saw off a spirited Slavia Prague comeback to reach their own Europa League semi-final, but Arsenal got the job done.

They were the better team across both legs and will now face Emery’s former club Valencia for a place in this season’s final in Baku on 29 May, the Spaniard once again proving he is the master of this competition.

No manager has won more knockout games in the Europa League than the Arsenal head coach, who won three consecutive titles while at Sevilla.

Emery said Arsenal would go for it and he stuck to his word as both Lacazette and Pierre-emerick Aubameyang started in attack, the visitors beginning the game on the front-foot looking for a goal to all but kill off the tie.

But, in committing men forward, they presented Napoli with the game’s first decent chance as Aubameyang lost possession and the hosts broke, working the ball into Jose Callejon whose shot was well saved by the legs of Petr Cech.

Arkadiusz Milik, recalled by Carlo Ancelotti having been on the bench for the first leg, finished well only to be denied

0 Alexandre Lacazette, left, celebrates his goal with fellow frontman Pierre-emerick Aubameyang.

by the offside flag before he headed wide when picked out in front of Cech’s goal.

Arsenal suffered a blow as Aaron Ramsey, who opened the scoring at the Emirates Stadium last week, was forced off just after the half-hour mark with a hamstring problem.

But they would soon be celebrating as Lacazette dusted himself off having been fouled 30 yards from goal and curled a free-kick over the wall, badly wrong-footing Alex Meret in the Napoli goal to put Arsenal ahead on the night and in charge of the tie.

The lead should have been doubled soon after the break, Henrikh Mkhitaryan – on for the injured Ramsey – playing in Aubameyang, only for Meret to make a superb stop to deny the Gabon striker.

Napoli were kept at arm’s length by a determined Arsenal side, showing much more guile and threat than they mustered in beating Watford’s 10 men 1-0 on Monday night.

There was an occasional threat to Arsenal’s lead but Cech’s most difficult save came as a cross bounced off teammate Nacho Monreal and had

to be kept out. For all the criticism often aimed at the Arsenal defence, they have now kept six clean sheets in their last seven games and managed to keep consecutive clean sheets away from home across all competitions for the first time since January 2017.

They will face Valencia at home on 2 May and will hope to head to the Mestalla with a lead similar to the one with which they travelled to Napoli – all with the intention of going a step further than last season and reaching the final of this tournament.