It took a superb late acrobatic strike from Olivier Giroud to settle what was a very dull contest in Serbia as Arsenal claimed a 1-0 win at 10-man Red Star Belgrade.
The win sees Arsenal continue their perfect Europa League record with three wins from as many games and the Gunners are five points clear at the top of Group H.
In a first half of few chances Theo Walcott forced a decent save out of the opposition's goalkeeper Milan Borjan, while Nenad Krsticic and Slavoljub Srnic both sent their efforts off target at the other end.
The best chances of the first half fell to the hosts as Richmond Boakye's header hit the crossbar before Petr Cech produce a fine save to push away Nemanja Radonjic's strike.
The second half wasn't much better with neither side creating too much to shout about. Arsenal youngster Reiss Nelson saw his powerful strike palmed away by Borjan as the game continued to look destined to end goalless.
Red Star Belgrade also tried to find a way to break the deadlock, but Krsticic's header was well saved by Cech. But the host's chances of holding on for a point were dealt a blow when Milan Rodic was sent off for a second bookable offence following his foul on Francis Coquelin.
Arsenal took advantage of having an extra man as Giroud popped up with the all-important winning goal four minutes from time. Jack Wilshere, who was arguably our best player on the night, was at the heart of the move. The midfielder ran at the defence and expertly span away from a tackle before playing a one-two with Walcott and flicking the ball back over the top. Walcott got on the end of it to head the ball back across goal and Giroud met it with a sublime overhead kick to score the winner.
Wilshere put in an energetic man of the match display, while young duo Reiss Nelson and Joe Willock also looked impressive. Mathieu Debuchy was fairly solid at the back in what was his first start since November 2016, but apart from that we were largely poor overall and didn't create enough.
GROUP H
Admittedly we've hardly lit up the Europa League this season and our performances have been below-par from what we would have expected considering the opposition.
Without being disrespectful to our opponents we should have done far better from our opening three games in terms of chances created and attacking intent.
Although the performances haven't been ideal, the results have been spot on and maximum points at the halfway stage in Group H is exactly what we needed.
BATE Borisov recorded a 1-0 home win over FC Cologne and, with a five point lead over BATE and our recent Serbian opponents, it is very nearly job done for the Gunners.
We still shouldn't get complacent as anything could happen, but in terms of results things are looking good. Performances however must improve!
MY FINAL THOUGHTS
I still find it hard to get too excited by the Europa League and I'll be first to admit I miss the Champions League immensely.
This should be a reminder to the players that we need to up our game if we are to get back into it. At the moment winning the Europa League seems like our best route in as we are hardly firing on all cylinders in the Premier League.
A trip to Everton, who suffered a 2-1 home defeat against Lyon in their Europa League clash, is next on the horizon. Despite their lowly league position there is no doubt this could be a very tough game.
We definitely need a much better performance if we are to bounce back from our defeat at Watford and we really need to make sure we test the goalkeeper more and make our chances count!
COME ON YOU GUNNERS
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