Arsenal have continued their fine form in Europe with another win against Rapid Vienna.
The Gunners welcomed their fans back this evening with an especially impressive performance, in which they came away with a 4-1 victory to cement themselves into first place.
Arsenal no longer have a chance of being drawn against the teams dropping out of the Champions League after their win tonight, and the fashion in which they achieved it was impressive.
Despite making a number of changes from the weekend’s match, we took little time in moving into the lead when Alexandre Lacazette fired in a fireball from outside the box, which the keeper failed to stop due to the movement on the ball.
It wasn’t long before we doubled our lead either, as within 20 minutes we moved 2-0 up thanks to Pablo Mari.
Lacazette nearly added the third after some fine work down the right flank, only to be denied by the post, but the half-time whistle couldn’t come quick enough for Rapid Vienna to stop us from getting a third.
Again some delightful interchanging and passing saw us hone in on goal, and Eddie Nketiah finished it off with his second attempt, scoring from his own rebounded shot.
We started the second half a little on the slow side, and were duly punished by the Austrian side, but substitute Emile Smith Rowe capped his second appearance off with a goal, again finishing off another series of technical passes.
Willian and Ainsley Maitland-Niles could have had at least one each in the second half but were wasteful when in on goal, but the performance overall was top, with both Nelson and Lacazette being my picks to start at the weekend.
Is this performance in front of the fans a statement for the weekend?
Patrick