The Warm-Up: Arsenal in a fine Mes

Say what you want about Arsene Wenger, at least he suffered his European humiliations at the hands of decent teams. Last night, Arsenal fans would have been yearning for the golden days of losing 5-1 to Bayern Munich across *both legs* of the Champions League last-16.

Of course, it is Wenger’s fault that Arsenal are in the Europa League in the first place. But after nine months in charge, Arsenal supporters would be right to expect a little more from Unai Emery, who witnessed his side go down 1-0 away to BATE Borisov in the last 32 of the Europa League last night. Last season in this fixture, Arsenal scored four times with a significantly weakened side. This time they lost against a team who were playing their first match in two months.

The deal with the Europa League is essentially that you don’t really need to care about it until the semi-finals, when it begins to become mildly interesting. But a miserable performance means Arsenal now need to turn things around in the home leg next week. Worse, they played poorly with no real sign of any plan. Worse, it is becoming hard to ascertain just what it is Emery is trying to do with his team.

There is a good argument that having entrusted the team to a new manager, Arsenal need to trust the process and see this as a long-term developmental stage. But it’s increasingly hard to sustain that trust when performances are so inconsistent and while Emery apparently sees no real need to play his best, and most highly paid player. What kind of process is it which leaves Mesut Ozil on the sidelines and means Sead Kolasinac is your most prominent creative outlet?

"Every player is okay to play. Those that were here, we can win with them and we deserved that," said Emery, as he dealt with questions about Ozil’s absence after the match. “Last week we won and we played with the same players. No different performance. We deserved to win but didn't get the result. They were very organised. We can win with every player and lose with the same players."

The trouble being that they managed to do the latter against a team like BATE - finishing the game with 10 men when Alexandre Lacazette stupidly lashed out in the closing stages.

The Frenchman is of course suspended for the home leg which means Emery has to try even harder to find a reason to not play his most talented footballer at a time when his team are struggling to put together any convincing patterns of play.

Speaking of new managers who are struggling to transmit their ideas, Chelsea fared better than Arsenal last night as they secured a 2-1 win away at Malmo, albeit having been 2-0 up through a fortunate goal from Ross Barkley and a delicious backheel from Olivier Giroud.

Whatever, after losing four of their past eight games, and shipping six against Manchester City at the weekend, it was just important for Maurizio Sarri to get the win he so badly needed.

Coming just two days after reports Sarri has lost the dressing room (oops!), this wasn’t exactly the kind of emphatic performance which would have erased such suspicions, but Sarri fights on nonetheless. Mute #SarriOut for now, at least.

Wrapping up the British action in the Europa League, Celtic suffered a humbling night as they were beaten 2-0 at home by Valencia.

"The lessons are you need to really concentrate, there wasn't a lot in the game," said manager Brendan Rodgers.

"Unfortunately for us we made too many mistakes. When you do that against good teams it kills your momentum, puts you on the back foot.

"Concentration is so important, you can get away with it domestically at times, but at this level, against good players, you don't concentrate and you bring pressure on to yourself. It ended up being a disappointing night for us."

Sergio Aguero had an uneventful Valentine’s Day...

Oscar Cardozo is still banging in goals - quite good ones, it turns out.

Three years ago today, Lionel Messi conjured up this moment of magic from the penalty spot. Following in the footsteps of Johan Cruyff, and the missteps of Robert Pires, Messi rolled it off to a grateful Luis Suarez. Absolute genius - and you can safely say Cristiano Ronaldo would never consider doing anything of the sort.

QPR v Watford brings in the fifth round of the FA Cup tonight while in League One, Netflix sensations Sunderland take on Accrington Stanley, who as yet haven’t featured on any major streaming platforms. Remember, you can watch all the EFL highlights on Quest on Saturday evening.