Jack Wilshere got back among the goals as Arsenal put in an excellent performance to round off the Europa League group stages with an emphatic 6-0 home win over BATE Borisov.
The Gunners didn't have much to play for, but you can only play what's put in front of you and, with qualification and top spot already secure, complacency could have crept in. Arsenal didn't let it affect them and put in arguably their best performance of the six group games as manager Arsene Wenger racked up his 700th win in charge.
Wilshere added to first-half efforts from Mathieu Debuchy and Theo Walcott for his first competitive goal since 2015. Yet again the midfielder impressed and surely he has to start a league game soon. He has certainly given Wenger food for thought and I would much rather see Wilshere start and would put him ahead of both Aaron Ramsey and Granit Xhaka.
We certainly deserve credit for a decent performance as Olivier Giroud and Mohamed Elneny scored after an own goal to complete the rout. But our opposition BATE Borisov looked nothing like the team we had faced in Belarus back in September.
Admittedly we didn't have the toughest of groups, but we got the job done by finishing top of the group and reaching the round of 32.
Arsenal started brightly and could have opened the scoring inside three minutes had Elneny's shot not hit a post. At the other end Mirko Ivanic showed a great first touch before shooting harmlessly off target and that miss proved costly for the visitors as Arsenal soon broke the deadlock.
Debuchy, who hadn't scored since December 2014, fired a rocket of a first-time shot into the corner of the net and what a way it was for the French full-back to end a long run without a goal!
BATE goalkeeper Denis Scherbitski raced out to block an effort from Danny Welbeck before producing a great save to prevent an own goal. But there was nothing the visitors' number one could do about Arsenal's second after 37 minutes. Welbeck took one touch too many and the defender got to the ball, but it was poorly cleared straight to Walcott for an easy finish. Walcott nearly doubled his tally soon after, but his shot was cleared off the line by Nemanja Milunovic.
Arsenal were in full control and added a third through Wilshere two minutes before the break. The midfielder saw a curling shot excellently tipped over the crossbar by Scherbitski, but nothing was to stop him next time around. A good passing move set up Wilshere, who took a few touches before firing home a low shot from just inside the box.
The hosts continued to dominate in the second half and increased their lead to four goals within seven minutes of the restart. Walcott latched onto a pass from Wilshere before sending a low ball across goal, which Denis Polyakov accidentally turned into his own net.
Arsenal continued to attack and it was becoming a question of simply how many would they score? Scherbitski had to be alert as he produced an excellent save to deny Welbeck from point-blank range, but the Gunners didn't have to wait too long for goal number five shortly after the hour mark.
Walcott was fouled in the box before Giroud scored from the spot, but the French striker was soon ordered to re-take the penalty, which he netted again with no problem.
BATE rarely threatened at the Emirates, but the Belarus outfit very nearly fashioned a consolation goal after 67 minutes. Igor Stasevich's turn and shot in the box forced David Ospina into a good save to preserve Arsenal's clean sheet.
Wilshere was once again involved as his pass set up Elneny to curl in a great sixth goal for Arsenal after 74 minutes, before substitute Reiss Nelson saw his effort blocked by the defence.
BATE tried to muster a late response, but Ospina ensured his clean sheet by parrying a shot from Mikhail Gordeychuk.
GROUP H
The Europa League group stages are now over and, although I would have been hoping for a higher points tally, there is no denying we got the job done as we comfortably achieved our objective of winning Group H.
In truth this is the kind of performance we should really have been putting in in the previous five games, but it's the results that matter and four wins, a draw and a defeat was enough to see us through.
The race for second place in our group went right down to the wire with Red Star Belgrade beating FC Cologne by a narrow 1-0 margin to finish as runners-up.
The knock-out stages will present a completely different kind of challenge and, whilst I admire the selection of some of the youngsters in this competition we may need to start using more of our more regular senior players to ensure we progress as far as possible in the Europa League.
MY FINAL THOUGHTS
Looking at the list of possible opponents for the round of 32, Borussia Dortmund and Napoli are the ones I want to avoid, whilst I would prefer not to face Atletico Madrid in any of the next few rounds if possible.
There are no easy games, but there are certainly several sides left in the competition that if drawn against we really should be beating so we could be largely in charge of our own destiny. But that guarantees nothing and we must make sure we don't get complacent and we need to be at our best and avoid any silly errors if this is to be a memorable Europa League campaign.
Before we can even begin to think about who we might draw in the round of 32 we must quickly turn our attentions back to the Premier League. We need to get back to winning ways in the league as soon as we can and the trip to Southampton will certainly be a tough encounter, but one I feel we can get something out of.
We need to keep it tight at the back and be as clinical as we were against BATE and then I'm sure we can beat Southampton. But realistically the game at St Mary's won't be quite so comfortable! It is definitely a winnable game though so we need to go and show them what we are made of!
COME ON YOU GUNNERS
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