WELL thank God that’s over for a couple of months.
Arsenal signed off their Europa League group in front of the smallest crowd ever seen at the Emirates.
And the biggest laugh of whole evening came when the club announced a near-capacity 54,648 turn-out despite whole blocks of the Emirates being completely unoccupied.
Those comical figures referred to ‘tickets sold’ rather than actual bums on seats.
So technically, that meant last night’s attendance was substantially higher than the 44,064 attendance for September’s Carabao Cup tie against Doncaster.
But the reality was that the third biggest football stadium in England was at least half empty last night. And however much they tried to dress things up, there was no getting away from the fact that the novelty of the Europa League has well and truly worn off in North London.
Even Arsenal’s biggest win of the season was not enough to prevent many of the punters who had bothered to turn up from heading for the exits well before the final whistle. Only Arsene Wenger will be sorry to see the back of this competition until February because it means he now has to come up some other way of keeping his shadow squad busy.
And the Carabao Cup is not going to satisfy a bunch of senior internationals who are already starting to worry about their places at next summer’s World Cup finals. Jack Wilshere must be wondering what more he has to do to break into Wenger’s Premier League team after another man of the match performance last night.
Fans’ favourite Wilshere scored his first Arsenal goal since May 2015 as Arsenal ripped poor Borisov to shreds to confirm their position at the top of Group H.
Theo Walcott, back after a five-match virus, also got in on the act with an impressive close range finish to strengthen his claims for a first Premier League start of the season.
There was even a rare collector’s effort from Mathieu Debuchy, who ended his three-year goal drought to set the Gunners on their way with a thunderous early effort. But the pick of the bunch came from hapless BATE defender Denis Polyakov, who smashed an unstoppable shot into his own goal after Wilshere and Walcott had combined again to open up the Belarussian Champions.
Olivier Giroud added a fifth from the penalty spot after Walcott was upended in the area by Nemanja Milunovic, who had been fortunate to escape unpunished for an earlier hand into the face of Wilshere.
And Mohamed Elneny joined in the fun when he curled another inviting Wilshere pass into the top corner. Just as against Manchester United at the weekend, Arsenal totally dominated possession to rain shots in on their opponents’ goal.
But this time they didn’t gift their visitors a two-goal lead before clicking into action. And their finishing was one hell of a lot more clinical than it was against United.
Yet all the Europa League victories in the world won’t change Wenger’s mind when it comes to selecting his Premier League team.
Like it or lump it, this lot are destined for a long wait before their next start.
From The Sun
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