Arsenal book spot in Europa League knockout stages despite no-show against Red Star Belgrade

Arsenal crawled into the Europa League last-32 last night after holding Red Star Belgrade to a 0-0 draw at the Emirates that was even less exciting than it sounds.

It took FC Koln to beat BATE Borisov 5-2 to ensure Arsenal’s passage into the next round regardless of what happens in Arsenal’s final two games, away in Cologne and then back here against BATE Borisov in December. That game might not sound enticing but it is statistically improbable in the extreme that it can be as uneventful as this one. A much-changed Arsenal team, who struggled to create anything, was effectively cancelled out by a determined and organised Red Star side, who in fact had the better of the chances. There were no lessons to be learned and no positives to be taken. No moments from this game will make it onto Arsenal’s end of season DVD, no clips will go viral on social media overnight. It will be forgotten by everyone who was here, or at least by every Arsenal fan, as soon as the weekend’s football begins. There is not much more to say about it than that.

And yet it was an evening that ended exactly how Arsenal had hoped: with their place assured in the draw of the last-32 to be held in Nyon on 11 December. They never wanted to be in the Europa League but now they are here they might as well succeed in it. They had started their Group H campaign well enough, with three straight wins, meaning they did not have to do much tonight to progress. And not much was exactly what they did.

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Even for Jack Wilshere, expected to be the good news story of the night, did little to make his case for a promotion to the first team, a new Arsenal contract or an even England recall, as Wenger rather implausibly suggested at his press conference this week. On the day that Gareth Southgate said he would not pick the midfielder for England until Wenger did so for Arsenal in the Premier League, this was another chance. He did little in the first half but he came closer to scoring than any other Arsenal player, his second half shot hooked off the line by Damien Le Tallec. That was genuinely as good as it got for Arsenal. Not one Arsenal player made a compelling case for being involved against Manchester City on Sunday.

Olivier Giroud worked hard leading the line, and missed Arsenal’s best two first half chances. After 10 minutes he took Ainsley Maitland-Niles’ cross from the left, but his shot was straight at Red Star keeper Milan Borjan. Then when Joseph Willock sent him running down the middle, Borjan came off his line quickly enough to block him.

If Arsenal thought this was going to be an easy evening for them they were wrong. Red Star were very well organised and dangerous on the break. In fact, they had three chances towards the end of the first half better than anything Arsenal could create themselves. Matt Macey, making his second ever Arsenal appearance, had to palm a Slavoljub Srnic shot over the bar and then stretch to tip a Vujadin Savic shot just onto the crossbar.

Still Red Star continued to threaten and in the last minute of the first half they had the best chance of the lot: Richmond Boakye raced away on the counter after Guelor Kanga won the ball, but one-on-one with Macey he could only hook his shot wide. Arsenal had to switch on and sharpen up in the second half. But after the restart the visitors looked for their opportunities on the break – Boakye nearly tapped in from Srnic’s cross – as the game briefly threatend to open up. Wilshere made two half-hearted penalty appeals after tangling with Vujadin Savic but it was never convincing. His best moment was when he stole the ball from Maitland-Niles in the box and shot, only for Le Tallec to deny him.

Eventually Wilshere was moved back into midfield when Eddie Nketiah came on, but it did not meaningfully change the game. Wilshere found Theo Walcott with a diagonal pass which Walcott met with a sharp header, but it flew just wide. Walcott only got involved in the game in the final minutes but even then he could not win it, or prove anything positive to Wenger: he skewed wide when set up by Mohamed Elneny’s header, then he was offside when he tried to set up Nketiah.

There was no real siege from Arsenal at the end and with FC Koln beating BATE Borisov there did not need to be one. Arsenal were booed off, but they were through, and with two games to spare. Who could possibly complain about that?

Arsenal (3-4-3): Macey; Debuchy, Elneny, Holding; Nelson, Coquelin, Willock, Maitland-Niles; Walcott, Giroud, Wilshere.

Red Star (4-2-3-1): Borjan; Stojkovic, Savic, Le Tallec, Gobeljic; Krsticic, Donald; Srnic, Kanga, Radonjic; Boakye.