Arsenal 4 Vorskla 2: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang nets double as Gunners ease to win in Europa League opener
The 29-year-old scored either side of a Danny Welbeck header before Mesut Ozil volleyed in a fourth
IF only everyone at Arsenal shared Unai Emery’s enthusiasm for the Europa League, they might actually stand a chance of winning the thing.
The Spaniard triumphed in this competition three times in a row during his time as Sevilla boss and couldn’t wait to renew acquaintance with his old friend last night.
Unfortunately, not many others at the club are quite so excited to be participating in the poor relation of European football.
And the thousands of vacant seats at the Emirates last night were testament to the fact that Emery is going to have his work cut out getting the punters up for this one.
After 19 successive years of Champions League glamour, the novelty of taking on the third best teams from obscure eastern European leagues has definitely worn off.
Arsenal’s Europa League debut last season attracted so many visiting fans from Cologne that the match was almost abandoned.
But one year on only a hardy handful made the long trek from eastern Ukraine - yet still made more noise than the rest of the crowd.
To be fair to Emery, he did his best to generate a bit of excitement by giving the fans a first look at goalkeeper Bernd Leno as well as handing starting opportunities to Lucas Torreira and Stephan Lichtsteiner.
And unlike Arsene Wenger, Emery is making it clear that he won’t be treating the Europa League as little more than a chance to keep his reserve team occupied.
Poor Vorskla clearly hadn’t been expecting to find themselves up against striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, whose £56million record fee was probably more than they had spent in their entire history.
They were so unprepared for the Gabonese superstar that they gifted him the freedom of their penalty area to fire his team into a 32nd minute lead.
Until then Arsenal had been struggling to assert their authority against their unknown opponents.
But then Henrikh Mkhitaryan intercepted a stray pass on the edge of his own area and launched a devastating counter-attack which ended with Aubameyang sweeping Alex Iwobi’s low cross into the bottom corner.
He almost added a second just before half-time with a spectacular dipping effort which struck the base of the far post from 25 yards.
But Emery didn’t have to wait too long for his side to put the tie to bed when Danny Welbeck ghosted between Poltava’s central defenders to glance in Mkhitaryan’s 48th minute cross.
Mkhitaryan was playing like a man with something to prove after being left out of Arsenal’s last two starting line-ups.
It was another pass from the Armenian international which allowed Aubameyang to poke the ball through the legs of Artur before thrashing it past keeper Bohdan Shust for his second of the night.
That was enough for Emery as he withdrew Aubameyang and Torreira for the final 33 minutes to save them for Sunday’s home game against Everton.
But there was still another twist of the knife from the ruthless Gunners boss as he sent on £350,000-a-week Mesut Ozil to inflict further misery on their hapless opponents.
And the German duly obliged when he prodded home Lichtsteiner’s 75th minute cross for his second goal of the week.
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Even two late Poltava goals from Volodymyr Chesnakov and Vyacheslav Sharpar could not take the gloss off Arsenal’s night’s work, although Leno might not agree.
The £19.2million German had been virtually unemployed and looked to be heading for Arsenal’s first clean sheet of the season until his defenders decided to go missing with the victory already in the bag.
The TV cameras immediately panned to the dug-out, where Petr Cech appeared to be struggling to suppress a smirk.
But it was Emery who worse the biggest smile at the confirmation that his team are going to be serious Europa League contenders.
It is 24 years since Arsenal won the now defunct Cup-Winners’ Cup and European glory always eluded Wenger despite all his best efforts.
If Emery can end that Euro-drought at the first time of asking, even the sceptical fans might fall in love with Thursday night football.