Arsenal Barely Batter BATE Before Drawing Rennes

Arsenal did what they had to do against BATE Borisov last night and the 3-0 win was enough to put them through to the last 16 of the Europa League with relative ease. It could have been a lot better, but after losing the first leg 1-0 last week the most important thing was progressing to the next round. The draw for the last 16 was made this afternoon and Arsenal will face Rennes away from home on March 7th with the return leg at the Emirates a week later.

On the face of it it’s a fairly good draw, but Rennes will be by no means a pushover and Arsenal’s schedule is about to become very hectic. They play at home to Southampton on Sunday which is followed by another home game against Bournemouth on Wednesday before an early trip to Spurs the following Saturday and then Rennes away on Thursday followed by home games against United and Rennes on the Sunday and Thursday respectively. By my reckoning that’s six games in 19 days with four of them at home and two away from home. 

It’s a pretty tough schedule for a squad as paper thin as Arsenal’s and any more injuries would be very unwelcome at this stage. There is an international break soon afterwards and Arsenal have a free week before that as they’re out of the FA Cup, but coming through six games in 19 days won’t be easy. Of course Spurs and United face a similar fixture pile up, but they both have one game less in that time scale as they only have to play the second leg of their Champions League last 16 ties.

Drawing Rennes is definitely more desirable than the draw could have been to us, but they showed they’re no pushover by winning 3-1 away to Real Betis last night to reach the last 16. The first leg was originally meant to be played at the Emirates, but it was switched because Chelsea are at home on the same night and you can have two Europa League games in the same City on the same night. Rennes aren’t particularly happy with the decision and I suspect we might not have heard the last of it. 

Getting back to the victory last night and it wasn’t exactly a thrill a minute, but we did what we had to do. We were helped when a defender turned in a Pierre-Emireck Aubameyang cross early on and we followed it up with headers from corners by Shkodran Mustafi and Sokratis Papastathopoulos. The fact we couldn’t really open them up in open play should not be lost on us though as we continue to struggle with our game.

Mesut Ozil was given the chance to show what he can do from the start and while he didn’t set the world alight I still thought we looked a lot more fluid with him in the team. His inclusion meant Aaron Ramsey sat the game out and I wonder if Unai Emery will switch the two of them around for Southampton on Sunday. I’d like to see Ozil get a run in the team, but I’m not sure if the manager will have been overjoyed at his unwillingness to chase back and close down on the occasions he lost possession.

I can’t say I’ve been over impressed by Stephan Lichsteiner since he joined us on a free transfer from Juventus last summer, but he made a telling contribution with an early clearance off the line last night. Maybe a goal from BATE would have made us concentrate a little harder on the task in hand, but it could have harmed our brittle confidence too and who knows where the game would have gone then. After our third goal the game petered out, but it was good to see Sokratis come back from his injury even if Laurent Koscielny went off with what looked like a slight knock.

There’s some big tests ahead for us and to be in the best place to face those tests we need maximum points against both Southampton and Bournemouth first. Neither of them are a pushover, but their away records are not good and anything other than six points from those two games will be a huge disappointment.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.