Arsenal 1-0 Qarabag: 3 reasons why Arsenal won

Arsenal’s pre-match status as the winners of the group made this match a dull affair. Arsenal welcomed Laurent Koscielny into the starting line-up which will give the Gunners some cover for Mustafi and Sokratis who are both suspended for Sunday’s premier league match against Southampton.

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17-year-old Bukayo Saka made his debut for Arsenal and Unai Emery’s strategy of giving academy graduates time in first team really paid off in their last Europa league group match. Mesut Ozil made a noted comeback after his absence due to strange reasons, and created the only goal of the match for Lacazette who was starting after a long time himself. With Ramsey not playing today’s match, there are chances he might start on Sunday. Arsenal have to play four matches in the next 10 days and the confidence that they have gained from a 22-match unbeaten run is surely going to help the Gunners.

Here are three reasons Arsenal won the match without any fuss:

3. Not a very strong opponent

There was literally no pressure exerted by the Azerbaijani side as Arsenal had it easy throughout the night. It gave Unai Emery a chance to test out his youngsters. Saka, Willock, and Niles really performed well with no major mistakes and made their case stronger for future starts.

It was a good match at the right time for Emery to bring Koscielny and Ozil in, as they needed some match fitness after a long injury layoff. Weak opponents like Qarabag will be a rarity in the coming days for Arsenal, since they have a hectic festive period with four matches in the next 10 days to try and keep their unbeaten run intact.

Qarabag finished at the bottom of the table and today’s performance was reason enough to believe why they were not able to compete well in the group.

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