BATE 1 ARSENAL 0
Lacazette sees red as Dragun fires minnows to shock Europa League win over dire Gunners
Emery's men trailed after dominating first half - but faded as Belarusians land only their SECOND win over a Prem side
SEVENTY-SIX percent possession, two shots on target, zero ideas.
Arsenal might have thought they were hiring a Europa League expert when they brought in Unai Emery but they are plumbing new depths under the hapless Spaniard.
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Is it really only a year ago that Arsene Wenger’s team put ten goals past these Belarussian Champions over two games?
Have they really fallen so far so quickly?
The answer to both questions is a resounding ‘YES’.
And while Emery is adamant that his players will turn this tie around in next week’s return leg at the Emirates, few who were in the Borisov Arena last night will share his confidence.
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They will have to do it without Alexandre Lacazette, sent-off for an 85th minute elbow as the frustration became all too much for the goal-shy Gunners.
Maybe Emery will find a way to squeeze Mesut Ozil and Aaron Ramsey into his midfield rather than Sead Kolasinac and Ainsley Maitland-Niles.
But don’t hold your breath.
Emery’s team selections are becoming increasingly questionable to the point of perverse.
Alexandre Lacazette gets sent off for elbowing Filipovic as Arsenal lose to BATE Borisov in Europa League
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He left Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Lucas Torreira - arguably Arsenal’s best players this season - on the bench until midway through the second-half.
And by the time he sent on the cavalry his team were already trailing to a 45th minute header from Stanislav Dragun.
And as much as they huffed and puffed to put things right, there was no way back for a team who are proving that they can muck it up anytime, any place, anywhere.
Believe it or not, this was BATE’s first game in two months, and their first at home since they wrapped up the Belarusian League title for a ninth year running in November.
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Arsenal had completed 13 games in all competitions since then yet still managed to look like the team who hadn’t kicked a ball in anger all year.
They weren’t exactly helped by a cow-field of a pitch which looked as though the groundsman had joined the players in taking a winter break.
So maybe it was good thing that Ozil had been left behind to post Valentine’s Day messages on Instagram and ‘like’ fans’ comments questioning Emery’s judgment.
Quite what the delicate German would have made of trying to play his intricate passing game on this field of screams is anyone’s guess.
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Yet Emery had promised ahead of this tie that he would not be using the pitch or the sub-zero temperatures as an excuse.
Maybe he figured that after a weekend trip to Huddersfield, how much more miserable could conditions be?
Yet it must still have been quite a shock for Arsenal’s players when they walked out for their pre-match warm-up and found they needed crampons rather than studs.
Not that BATE had it any easier. They had prepared for this match with a pre-season training session in Turkey, of all places.
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Having remained unbeaten throughout their entire first round group and not conceded a Europa League goal since their opening game of the campaign, Arsenal had arrived in Belarus convinced that this would be a piece of cake.
They could have been ahead as early as the second minute when Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s close-range effort was well saved by keeper Denis Scherbitski.
And they should have been ahead midway through the first-half but Lacazette somehow contrived to send an unchallenged header sailing over the bar.
All of Arsenal’s best attacking moments were coming down the left wing via the marauding Kolasinac.
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But the powerful Bosnian was also responsible for their worst defensive moments and it was his failiure to challenge which allowed Dragun to nip in for the decisive header.
Mind you, he was hard pushed by Shkodran Mustafi for the dubious distinction of Arsenal’s dodgiest defender.
The only time BATE had ever beaten English opposition before was in a meaningless UEFA Cup tie against Everton in 2009, when Mustafi made his one and only appearance for the Merseysiders.
Coincidence? You decide.
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Lacazette thought he had hauled Arsenal back into contention ten minutes after the break, but he had strayed marginally offside before lashing in from another Kolasinac cross.
And that was as good as it was to get for the Frenchman before he was shown a straight red card by Serbian ref Srjdan Jovanovic for throwing an angry arm into the face of BATE full-back Aleksandar Filipovioc.
Now Arsenal have it all do in the second leg at the Emirates next Thursday when failure to overturn the deficit will all but end their chances of qualifying for next season’s Champions League.
At least Emery won’t have to worry about a dodgy pitch for that one. It’s just his players who will be giving him sleepless nights.
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