Arsene Wenger has reacted to the win over BATE Borisov, the form of Jack Wilshere and Theo Walcott, and the record low turnout at the Emirates Stadium.

Arsenal defeated BATE Borisov 6-0 on Thursday night to round-off the Europa League group stage.

The team played with confidence from the very beginning and made the gap in quality painfully apparent to the visiting team.

It was Arsene Wenger’s 700th win as Arsenal manager, and one that he feels was very stylish.

“I believe that it was done in a stylish way and in a technically-high quality game from our side,” Wenger told Arsenal.com.

“You can say the opponent was not at the level of the Premier League, and I would agree with you, but you can only do your job and that’s what we did, in a convincing way with remarkable spirit and finished well the job in this group stage. That’s basically it.”

Key to the good performance was the form of Jack Wilshere.

The midfielder put in a dominant display that saw him score his first goal for the club since May 2015 and create several chances for his teammates.

Wenger was pleased with how sharp he looked.

“Look, Jack’s moving forward. You could see tonight that he is moving forward and ready to play now,” he said.
“He is sharp, he is quick, he is incisive again with his dribble and technically he was very good tonight. I would say for 70 minutes he was dominant in midfield on the creative side and that is very good news for us.”

Another player to end a long goal draught was Mathieu Debuchy.

The right back opened the scoring with a thunderous drive that few expected.

Wenger feels the Frenchman is fit and ready to play Premier League football again.

“Yeah, they [he and Jack] are two similar players who have been out for a long time. He has had setbacks many times but now he’s fit and ready to play and you could see that from all the players who played tonight.”

The game was played in front of a record-low crowd of 30,000. Given that Arsenal had already won the group and were playing low-standard opposition, Wenger does not blame the fans for staying away.

“You respect the decision of your fans. They knew we were top of the group anyway and you could basically expect that. You have looked around last night in the Champions League in game number six, I have seen many grounds not full, or half empty. That’s a bit the problem of the group stage.”

Arsenal will discover who they will face in the round of 32 on Monday afternoon.

With the standard of opposition set to increase, Wenger will have to decide if he can play a weakened team or not.

“We spoke about that. I thought that basically we were never in the Europa League because we always qualified out of the group stage, but I was never a big fan of teams going to the Europa League.
“I will adapt every time the team to the team we face. It depends. I just select the team I think can win the next game. It’s difficult because this team can play against anybody.”