Rampant Arsenal tear through Bate Borisov to finish off Europa League group stage in style

It was the type of night when the first paper airplane was flying onto the pitch long before half-time, with that itself signalling the type of game where the ball was flying into the net on regular intervals, as Arsenal racked up a 6-0 thrashing over Bate Borisov to complete their Europa League group stage. The Belarusian side are naturally eliminated, having allowed a display when so many of the home players could end droughts and start turning on the style. Mathieu Debuchy got his first goal since 2014 and Jack Wilshere his first since 2015, but all in front of what one TV estimate had as the smallest crowd to ever watch a game at the Emirates.

It was Bate that actually needed a win, given that they still had a chance to go through to the next round, but it was Arsenal that actually looked like they wanted one and that was largely because so many of this starting XI were really playing for a chance in Arsene Wenger’s best XI. That is where Wenger has used the Europa League well, in what is maybe the best possible way for such a side. He has created a hunger about these games for so many of his players, and that could again be seen from the start.

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Within two minutes, Mohamed Elneny had hit the post with a volley, and the waves never really subsided. Debuchy got that first goal in over three years and Arsenal’s first of the night after a mere 13 minutes, drilling the ball into the side of the net with a meaty strike. It could really have been a meaty scoreline long before Walcott got the second, as Giroud had one header turned away by Bate goalkeeper Denis Scherbitski – the one away player performing well at that point – and Walcott himself fizzed narrowly wide. The winger couldn’t miss on 37 minutes, when a flowing move and run by Danny Welbeck saw the ball come to him just in front of goal. He fired home.

Wilshere then ended his own drought just moments before half-time, and similarly did it in supreme fashion. Picking the ball up inside the box, he turned one way with delicacy, before the sending the ball the other way with driving force. Scherbitski had no chance.

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Bate meanwhile had next to no chance of avoiding a proper battering, something this match became moments after half-time when 3-0 became 4-0. To add insult to injured pride, it was an own goal. Wilshere – performing well, but enjoying the kind of space he’s just not going to get in the Premier League – picked out Walcott, who squared into the box only for the unfortunate Denis Polyakov to smash the ball into his own net.

Even more unfortunately for Bate and especially Polyakov, more errors were inevitable under that kind of pressure, and another came when Walcott was felled in the box by the centre-half for a penalty. Giroud stroked it home only to be ordered to retake it for encroachment, but duly hit the net again.

Having had the ball in the net six times, Arsenal didn’t have to wait too long for a sixth official goal, and that came when Elneny curled a fine effort into the far corner.

Arsenal were topping the group with a very top-heavy scoreline.