The Europa League group stage has been and gone, and, if nothing else, it’s been a novel experience.

If fans were dreading that the Europa League wouldn’t be anywhere near as stimulating and significant as the Champions League, they were proven right. At times, the competition has lived up to its seedy reputation as a low-quality, low-interest grind for teams of Arsenal’s stature.

Yet, this year’s group stage hasn’t been without incident. While Arsenal comfortably topped their group to reach the knockout stage, there have been some moments of interest.

So as we look ahead to Monday’s round of 32 draw, here are five lessons and highlights from the group stage.

Arsenal’s spectacular goals

With the shackles off and expectations low, the Arsenal fringe players weren’t shy of showing off a bit in front of goal.

At times, Arsenal needed those moments of brilliance to turn a tight game into a victory.

It was away to Red Star Belgrade that Olivier Giroud produced one of the best goals he’s ever scored in an Arsenal shirt. That overhead kick, which finished off a wonderful team move involved Jack Wilshere and Theo Walcott, came just days after he won the Puskas Award for his scorpion kick against Crystal Palace.

He could well be one of next year’s nominations as well.

The 6-0 win over BATE Borisov also had several wonderful goals. Debuchy’s screamer, Wilshere’s quick-feet and Mohamed Elneny’s curler were the highlights of that victory, as the Arsenal player fully revelled in the dead rubber scenario.

Jack Wilshere’s quality

Wilshere was turning into a myth due to his perpetual injury problems, but the midfielder turned plenty of heads with his displays in the Europa League.

Wilshere’s performance was reminiscent of his first full season as a teenager. Full of drive and clever touches, he quickly established himself as the most creative player in the rotated eleven, and had a hand in several of Arsenal goals.

While these performance will have done his first team prospects a lot of good, it was heartening to see him find his best form again after several difficult years at Arsenal.

Future glances

The lower standard of opposition and a need to rotate the team saw opportunities given to several young Arsenal players.

Reiss Nelson, Eddie Nketiah, Joe Willock, Marcus McGuane, Ben Sheaf and Matt Macey all made their Arsenal debuts in the competition, while Ainsley Maitland-Niles started in every game.

Impressively, none of these players were found wanting when Arsenal relied on them.

How they develop from here will dictate their futures at the club, but the experience will have been unforgettable for them.

Strength in depth

One of the biggest concerns about playing in the Europa League was the short amount of rest between games.

Playing on a Thursday night meant Arsenal would always play the following Sunday.

This routine has tripped up clubs in the past, but it turned out to be barely an issue for Arsenal.

In five league fixtures following our Europa League games, we’ve won two, drawn two and lost one.

This is due to Arsene Wenger heavily rotating his starting eleven and ensuring that his main Premier League team got adequate rest ahead of their next game, while simultaneously giving competitive minutes to the players who needed it.

With the standard set to increase in the knockout rounds, Arsenal may not be able to rotate as heavily as before.

However, they should have the squad to cope with it.

Bigger challenges are still to come

Cologne, BATE Borisov and Red Star Belgrade were hardly the best that the Europa League had to offer.

It’s tempting to think that Arsenal could and should walk the competition, but there are plenty of good teams remaining that can give us a tough time.

We need look no further than the teams dropping down from the Champions League.

Atletico Madrid will surely be the favourites to win the whole thing, while Napoli and Borussia Dortmund should make deep runs.

In addition to them are tricky opponents such as Lyon, Real Sociedad and Zenit St. Petersburg.

Arsenal’s chance of lifting the trophy are still good, but we’re going to have work hard to get there.