Arsenal 6 BATE Borisov 0 : Iwobi Not In 18, Akpom Benched

Arsenal cruised into the next round of the Europa League in some style, running riot over BATE Borisov in the final group game, with Arsene Wenger's charges displaying their ruthless attacking edge over their hapless visitors in a 6-0 victory.

Super Eagles attacker Alex Iwobi was not in the 18-man squad to face the Belarus club while his compatriot, Chuba Akpom, was named among the substitutes for the encounter.

Arsenal had failed to score in their last two games in the competition but there was to be no repeat of such this time around, with right-back, Mathieu Debuchy rifling a piledriver effort into the far corner to open the scoring as early as the 11th minute.

In the 37th minute, Danny Welbeck who cut in from the left saw his heavy touch almost fluff the opportunity but the rebound fell straight to Theo Walcott who nervelessly stroked home for his side's second with the BATE defense all over the place.

Six minutes later, Jack Wilshere thumped in another one, brilliantly making out some space before swiveling to hammer in for 3-0 and ensure the Gunners were in ascendancy throughout the first half.

BATE Borisov shambolic defending continued after the restart, Palyakow's own goal doing little to help matters as Alyaksandr Yermakovich's men further found themselves behind after the defender had inexplicably beat his own goalkeeper.

Deep into the second half, Arsenal's top scorer in the competition, Oliver Giroud added a goal from the spot to make it 5-0 after Walcott had been brought down in the area before Mohamed Elneny wrapped up the thrashing with another stunning effort, latching onto a Jack Wilshere's assist to hit first time into the corner.

Chuba Akpom watched on from the substitute bench for the entire ninety minutes.

Emmanuel Chinaza

Photo Credit : arsenal.com