Theo Walcott scored twice and Olivier Giroud netted his 100th Arsenal goal in a 4-2 win over Bate Borisov
An entertaining contest and a satisfying win for an experimental Arsenal side. Borisov started terribly but turned out to be decent opponents. Wilshere was outstanding in the first half but faded towards the end. All Arsenal’s youngsters impressed, and Holding and Giroud scored landmark goals. There was some defensive nonsense, of course, but generally this was hunky and dory for Wenger.
90 min: There will be at least two more minutes.
89 min: After a neat backheeled tee-up, Rios wallops a shot over from 20 yards.
Arsenal substitution: Nketiah (another 18-year-old) on, Willock off.
88 min: Stashevic cause yet more bother down the left. But after getting himself into a good position, he blasts high and wide from the corner of the box.
85 min: Willock has a shot charged down at the edge of the area. Borisov break. They worked it out to Stashevich wide on the left again. He drills in a low cross. Mustafi does well to clear it at the near post, at the expensive of a corner.
Borisov substitution: Baga on, A Volodko off.
83 min: Maitland-Niles gambols down the left. Then he curls a lovely pass across field to McGuane, who slips a canny ball through to Walcott. Accomplished play by the two youngsters. All of which is undone by Walcott, who bogs a weak shot way wide. A bad option badly executed.
81 min: Giroud tries a cheeky lob from 20 yards. It’s a good effort but floats a yard over the bar.
Arsenal substitution: McGuane on, Nelson off. McGuane is 18, a year older than Nelson, who performed well but most of Borisov’s attacks in the second half came down his side. He didn’t get much help from Walcott, either.
77 min: Nelson makes good ground down the right and then shows composure to pick out a pass, shifting the ball to Giroud on the other side of the box. Giroud, by contrast, smacks a rash shot way of target.
76 min: Dragun slices open the Arsenal defence a little too easily, pinging a pass from just inside the Arsenal half into the path of Stashevich, who had charged in from the right. Only bad control spares Arsenal. Hats off to Borisov, they could have given up but they’re seriously making Arsenal fret now. And Arsenal have become sloppy.
75 min: Scherbitski punches Walcot’s corner away Second later, Borisov are bearing down on Arsenal’s goal. And they get a freekick for a foul on Ivanic. It’s wide on the left. The delivery is poor, allowing Ospina to gather.
73 min: Corner to Arsenal after a cross by Giroud is deflected behind...
71 min: Gordeichuk bulldozes his way into the box from the left, barging past Nelson and Mustafi. Then he pulls it back to A Volodko, who tries to sidefoot it into the top corner from the edge of the box. But he blazes it wide!
68 min: Stasevich flies down the left wing and hoists over a dangerous cross. Ospina charges off his line and punches it away. Forget petering out, this game is up for grabs again. Arsenal are wobbling in defence.
A tidy move down the left, followed bya weak sliding tackle by Mertesacker, which allows a cross to come in from the left-hand byline. Holding slips as he goes to intercept, and Gordeichuk is left with a simple chance from three yards. And he hammers it into the net.
63 min: Walcot is pulled back near the right-hand corner of the Borisov box. Milunovic gets a well-deserved booking. But Wilshere’s freekick fails to beat the one-man wall. Can one-man be a wall? Maybe he’s just a brick. Or a bollard. “Man, I feel old,” confides Robert Lowery. “First I’m sitting here seeing The Boy Wilshere is balding and grizzled next to his even younger teammates. Then Arsenal’s record European score comes up and I can’t believe that not everyone remembers Liege 0-7 Arsenal. Next I realise it was 24 years ago and the scorers were Selly, Merson, Adams, Campbell and McGoldrick ( I didn’t even have to google that.....) and that I had double maths and hurling training the next day. And now I’ve realised that I’m just like the Arsenal fans of my youth who would discuss the merits of Brady or his contemporaries......The world turns full circle, generation replaces generation and Arsenal are back on TV playing European football on a Thursday night....looking forward to Danny Wellbeck cracking one in on the volley to win the final this year. Gareth Bale scoring from half way in last minute of next year’s Champions League final, not so much.”
61 min: The game is petering out. Shame.
59 min: Willock commits a heavy touch and almost loses possession. but he then shows tremendous determination and strength to win it back outside his own box, and then strides forward and sets an Arsenal attack in motion Fine play by the young man.
57 min: A freekick is whipped in from the right. Signevich gets a glancing header to it, and Ospina’s reflexes allow him to make a smart parry.
Borisov substitution: Sihnevich on, Rodionov off.
53 min: Corner to Borisov after Mustafi cuts out a cross.
51 min: Wilshere is fouled on the edge of the area but the ref doesn’t award a freekick. No point compensating now.
Giroud claims his 100th goal for Arsenal by stroking a low spotkick into the net as the keeper flopped the other way.
48 min: Nelson intercepts on the right wing, then drives forward and is brought down by Volodko. That’s a freekick to Arsenal in a useful position for a cross into the area. Walcott’s makes a mess of it. But no matter, because the ref has awarded a penalty! No one is sure why! Dragun gets a booking and the replay shows he touched Mustafi, maybe even took a little tug of his shirt. That was about the extent of it. Either that’s a lamentable decision or something happened that hasn’t been picked up by the camera.
46 min: We’re back. Brave yourselves!
“I think we must ask ourselves, what’s the most Arsenal thing that can happen from this point on?” parps John Cashman. “Do they switch off at the back and give up two in rapid succession, only to win in at the death via a Giroud header? Is there a Wilshere season-ending injury? What else?” As Bruce Springsteen once sang, SHOW A LITTLE FAITH, there’s magic in, um, Wenger’s history. But no European trophy. This is the season all that will change. Maybe.
What an entertaining knockabout half that was! There could have been double the number of goals, at least. Borisov showed themselves to be pretty handy going forward as the half wore on, but they’re in tatters at the back, partly because Arsenal have attacked well, with Wilshere exceptional. The youngsters have done well, too, especially Nelson.
44 min: Wilshere tries to slip a pass through to Giroud but his pass is intercepted. But a deflection takes it into the path of Walcott, who stabs the ball towards the far corner from eight yards. Great finger-tip save by the keeper! And from the ensuing corner Borisov are all ove the place again. Holding slashes a close-range shot off the outside of the post!
43 min: Willock is down holding his head after catching a swinging arm from Milunovic. That didn’t look accidental. Milunovic should be on his way to the shower.
41 min: Arsenal have devoted the last fe minutes to puncturing Borisov’s resurgence. Sensible, but not so much fun.
39 min: Wilshere is taken down from behind and for a moment it looks like he may stay in a heap on the ground. But soon he jumps to his feet, ready to carry on orchestrating Arsenal’s play. He really has been excellent so far.
37 min: Maitland-Niles does well to win a corner down the left. The last one produced a goal. This one is punched clear by the keeper.
35 min: Moments after another sharp break led by Wilshere, Borisov threaten at the other end, forcing a good save from Ospina. What an open game this is! It’s hard to keep up.
33 min: A freekick from the left is curled in towards the penalty spot. Dragun gets a nice glancing header to it. Ospina flings himself to his left to make a tremendous one-handed save. But he needn’t have bothered, because Dragun was offside.
30 min: In answer to my previous question, Arsenal’s biggest win in Europe is 7-0, which they’ve mustered twice, once against Standard Liege and once against Slavia Prague. They obviously can’t shut out Borisov now, but we shouldn’t discount them hitting eight. If they decide to just shut up shop, I may stop this MBM in protest.
The swill strike back! And it was a very fine goal. A good cross from the right by Rios flies a little too easily past Elneny and is met by Ivanic, whose header is so powerful it whizzes past Ospina from 10 yards.
From a corner won following a good mvoe involving Nelson, Wilshere and Maitland-Niles, Mertesacker gets off a header, and Holding shins it past the keeper from two yards! That’s his first goal for Arsenal! And you wouldn’t rule out a hat-trick for him today. Borisov are absolute swill. What’s Arsenal’s record win in Europe?
Dear oh dear, that is abysmal goalkeeping! Scherbitski collects a humdrum pass back and controls with his right foot ... before passing it straight to Walcott 16 yards out. The forward suppresses the urge to laugh, ignores Giroud, who wants a pass, and slots a low shot into the corner past the keeper. Now Walcott can laugh.
21 min: Giroud gives the ball away, allowing Borisov to counter. A cross from the let is cleared to just outside the box, giving Ivanic a chance to try another shot. It’s a good effort on the half-volley, but whizzes a couple of yards wide.
20 min: Ivanic tries to launch one into the top corner from 30 yards. That’s testament to how rarely Borisov have got sight of Arsenal’s goal. The shot is way off target.
17 min: Wilshere, pulling strings again, nips a pass in to Giroud at the edge of the area, then darts forward to collect the return. He then pops the ball wide to Walcott and darts forward again to receive the next return pass, which he deviates into the net from close range. But it won’t count because the offside flag had been raised. I’m not sure that as the correct decision; but it was definitely a dainty move. Wilshere’s having a ball.
14 min: Arsenal are in total charge at the moment, monopolising possession.
11 min: Nelson, aged 17, is looking very accomplished. And that goal can only help him and the other youngsters to gain confidence to perform even better. Not that they’ve looked short of confidence so far. They’re rising to Wenger’s challenge so far. But it’s an ex-prodigy, Wilshere, who’s running the show.
A close-range finish - followed by a bow-and-arrow celebration for some reason - after a gorgeous little cross from the left by Wilshere, concluding a move in which he was instrumental.
8 min: Nelson leads a an attack before passing to Wilshere a few yards outside the Borisov D. Wilshere flips a dinky pass through to Walcott, who dabs it past the keeper on the run from 12 yards ... but it bounces back of the post! Walcott tries to turn in the rebound from an acute angle, but a defender read that danger and blocks.
6 min: It’s been a steady opening by Arsenal. And by Borisov. Lots of neat passing in midfield but moves break down as soon as they get beyond that point. Borisov, at least, are committing lots of players to attack when they get the chance.
3 min: Ivanic fires off the game’s first host, a wobbly effort from 25 yards that comes to a halt near a photographer.
2 min: The early indications suggest this is a ref that likes to blow his whistle regularly. All very bitty so far.
1 min: We have go. Does anyone know which font Borisov have used for the names on the back of their jerseys? It’s choice.
Here come the teams. Borisov, winners of the Belarussian title for each of the last 11 years, are in an all yellow kit, except with a blue V across their chests. Arsenal, meanwhile, are decked out entirely in blue, their shirt combing dark- and sky-blue, like a half-in-half Man City-Chelsea number.
Speaking on the BT sports channel, Martin Keown says Borisov’s weakness is their left-back, Pyatov, who continually gets caught out of position. Keown expects Walcott to go on a spree.
Asked about how tough an assignment he expects this to be for his youngsters, Wenger coddles no mollies: “It’s a good test. In life and in our jobs you don’t get 50 opportunities. When you look back at all the players who’ve made it, usually they took their first opportunities ... Borisov are well organised, they’ve played in the Champions League, they’ve beaten Bayern at home [five years ago], so it’s a good test for us and we want to see how well they cope.”
As expected, Arsene Wenger has plumped for a youthful lineup. Big things are expected from the lad Mertesacker.
Bate Borisov: Scherbitski; Rios, Gaiduchik, Milunovic, Polakov, Volodko, Dragun; Gordeichuk, Ivanic, Stasevich; Rodionov.
Subs: Veremko, Yablonski, Berezkin, Signevich, Tuominen. Baga, M Volodko
Arsenal: Ospina; Mustafi, Mertesacker, Hlding; Nelson, Willock, Elneny, Maitland-Niles, Wilshere; Walcott, Giroud.
Subs: Macey, Dasilva, Gilmour, McGuane, Dragomir, Akpom, Nketiah.
Referee: D Stefanski (Poland)
