Arsenal fly into the next round with runaway victory

Arsenal jetted off to the Czech Republic today with their tie with Slavia Prague in the balance, but put the game to bed within 25 minutes of play.

The Gunners came racing out the blocks, and were denied the opening goal when Emile Smith Rowe was deemed to have been offside by a hair, and VAR eventually scrapped the goal after an extended review period.

Before you could get over the decision however, that man ESR has nutmegged two defenders on the edge of the Slavia box to play in Nicolas Pepe, who made no mistake in putting the ball away.

We continued to make our dominance pay when Bukayo Saka was taken out inside the box to gift us a penalty to double our lead, a chance Alexandre Lacazette was not about to turn down.

That man Saka was again involved in the next goal, as he picks the ball up on the wide right and cuts inside, before firing his effort from distance to catch the goalkeeper in no-mans-land.

Despite another couple of chances, Slavia managed to make it to the break behind by only three.

The Czechs came out in the second without any real purpose. They appeared to be playing as though they had accepted not only that they were being eliminated, but playing as if they knew they were second-best.

All the best chances were for Arsenal, and Alexandre Lacazette looked to have earned us another penalty when he appeared to be taken down inside the box, but the referee decided not to punish the home side.

The Frenchman did add a fourth after receiving the ball in space in the box, but he managed to turn the two defenders to get his shot away with his left to beat three players and score.

Gabriel Martinelli came off the bench and was causing problems, before Folarin Balogun also came on late to add to his minutes earlier in the campaign, although the tie was assured before they were introduced.

Will our rivals be worried about Arsenal picking up steam in this competition?

Patrick