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Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang came off the bench to avoid the blush of goalkeeper Bernd Leno as Arsenal scored twice in four minutes to claim the Europa League victory over Rapid Vienna.
Mikel Arteta named a strong team at the Allianz Stadion, where 3,000 local fans watched him, with Thomas Partey making his full debut in the first Group B match.
FULL MATCH DETAILS
But, after a mistake by Leno that gave Taxiarchis Fountas a goal, the Gunners had to come back with David Luiz and Aubameyang in goal when Arsenal left Austria with a 2-1 victory.
Having spoken on the eve of the match about the reasons for firing Mesut Ozil from his Europa League and Premier League teams, Arteta must have been concerned about a lack of creativity in the first hour.
Ozil was tweeting the game from home and offered his best wishes to Leno, whose position as number one for Arsenal divided the fan base when Emiliano Martinez was sold to Aston Villa in the summer.
After an even start, a header from Luiz forced Richard Strebinger to make the first save when the Brazilian defender found a free kick from Cedric Soares off the back post.
Leno was also in action for the first time shortly afterwards, doing well to take Fountas’ deviant movement in his hands.
There was little forward momentum for the visitors, their play often interrupted by referee Pavel Kralovec, who awarded a series of contentious fouls.
Ercan Kara fired a deflected shot as Rapid finished a tepid first half at the top and they were ahead just six minutes after the restart, albeit courtesy of a gift from Leno.
When trying to play from behind, Leno received the ball from Luiz but made a mistake when his pass was intercepted by Kara.
He chose his attacking partner, Fountas, as the Greek international finished well to break the deadlock.
Leno’s confidence seemed shaken by his mistake and he again presented the ball directly to Fountas, but this time he almost managed to avoid the effort of the fast forward from outside the area.
Arteta had seen enough and made a double time change, introducing Hector Bellerin and Captain Aubameyang from the bench.
But it was a far less familiar man who would put Arsenal back on equal footing when Luiz got up to launch Nicolas Pepe’s free kick home with Strebinger out of sight after venturing off his line.
Leno was clearly struggling after his earlier mistake and almost presented the hosts with the advantage immediately after the draw.
The German international charged off his line and his punt thundered at Luiz, with Fountas unable to contain the resulting shot.
It would be Arsenal who provided the lead in their next attack, Aubameyang leaving with a simple shot after a good pass from Mohamed Elneny allowed Bellerin to square with their captain.
Arsenal finished the remainder of the match with little threat of completing a professional job and starting their European campaign with three points.
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