Arsenal made light work of sub-zero temperatures and an artificial pitch to secure a comfortable Europa League victory over Ostersund, Evening Standard reported.
A strong side including Mesut Ozil, scorer of the Gunners’ third, and Henrikh Mkhitaryan proved too much for the Swedes, who had been playing in their country’s fourth tier less than a decade ago.
Nacho Monreal handed Arsenal the lead after 13 minutes, tapping home the rebound after Aly Keita had spilt Alex Iwobi’s shot.
The lead was doubled soon after when Sotirios Papagiannopoulos turned a Mkhitaryan cross past his goalkeeper.
Arsenal seemed set to rack up a sizeable lead before the half was out but Ostersund rose to the challenge in style with top scorer Saman Ghoddos terrorising Shkodran Mustafi, who was lucky to avoid a red card as early as the third minute, and Calum Chambers.
A fizzing volley from the 24-year-old brought a fine save from David Ospina as the hosts’ high-press forced error after error from Arsenal, who would have been relieved to make the interval with a clean sheet.
The Gunners came under similar pressure early in the second half but after riding an early wave secured victory when Mkhitaryan slipped in Ozil to strike the third.
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