Arsenal suffered a shock defeat in the Europa League on Thursday against BATE.
The Gunners travelled away from home to Belarus and almost everyone knew that Emery’s side were going to pick up an easy win.
More so since the manager chose to name a strong side after playing with mostly youngsters in the group stages.
And to be very honest, Arsenal were the better side during the match as they created a series of chances throughout the 90 minutes.
But not a single ball was put into the back of the net.
On the other hand, though, BATE scored in the 45th minute and then went onto hold on to that slender lead during the next 45 minutes.
Unai Emery did make the necessary attacking changes in the second half but none of them seemed to work.
And speaking after the game, Petr Cech revealed as to why the Gunners were actually unable to score.
“It was one of those games where if we played for another couple of hours probably we wouldn’t have scored. But there are games in football like that,” he said.
“You try, you play, the goal does not arrive and you have to go home with the result you don’t want but you have to pick yourself up and be ready for the second leg.
“This is the advantage of playing two-legged ties – when one game goes wrong you can always make up for it.”
The situation was further worsened when Alexandre Lacazette picked up a red card five minutes before full time which means that the Frenchman has now been ruled out for the second leg.
This though, should not be a major cause of concern for Arsenal given they will be playing at home and picking up three points should be easy.
But that’s what we thought in the first leg too, didn’t we?
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