Mesut Ozil, Arsenal Cruise Past Ostersund in Europa League 1st Leg

Arsenal cruised to a 3-1 victory against Ostersund in their Europa League clash at the Jamtkraft Arena on Thursday. 

Nacho Monreal opened the scoring for the Gunners and a Sotirios Papagiannopoulos own goal ensured it was 2-0 by half-time. Mesut Ozil added a third after the break, and David Ospina saved a stoppage-time penalty from Tom Pettersson to give Arsenal a healthy first-leg lead in the tie.

James Olley at the Evening Standard shared the two teams:

ESPN FC's Mattias Karen noted how the Arsenal players were coping with the freezing conditions in Sweden:

The visitors were quick to show their extra quality and took just 13 minutes to open the scoring. Arsenal worked the ball to Alex Iwobi in the penalty area and his shot was spilled by goalkeeper Aly Keita, leaving Monreal with the simple task of knocking the ball into the empty net.

Opta showed how the defender is in a rich vein of goalscoring form:

Ostersund looked nervy in the opening stages and the goal did little to settle them down as Arsenal went on to dominate. A second goal always looked likely and it duly arrived on 24 minutes and was again the product of some poor defending.

The hosts were caught trying to play the ball out of defence, allowing Henrikh Mkhitaryan to pinch possession and cross for Danny Welbeck, but the ball took a nick off Papagiannopoulos and beat his own goalkeeper.

Touchline reporter Geoff Shreeves wasn't impressed with the game:

The second goal seemed to wake up the hosts a little, and Saman Ghoddos forced Ospina to tip a fierce shot over the bar. Ken Sema also fired a free-kick straight at the Arsenal goalkeeper towards the end of the first half, but that was about as good as it got for the Swedish side in the opening 45 minutes.

Arsenal effectively killed off the tie in the second half as Ozil grabbed a third just shy of the hour mark. The Germany international swapped passes with Mkhitaryan before shooting past Keita, although the goalkeeper should have done better.

Squawka Football showed how long it had been since Ozil's last goal in the Europa League:

Ostersund simply lacked the quality to trouble Arsenal, although they did have a chance in stoppage time as Hector Bellerin conceded a penalty after bringing down Tesfaldet Tekie. The spot-kick was a chance to give the home fans something to celebrate, but Pettersson could only manage a weak side-footed effort that Ospina saved comfortably.

FourFourTwo's James Maw gave his view of the penalty:

The win was entirely comfortable for Arsenal, who simply had too much quality for the opposition.

The Gunners have a healthy advantage ahead of the second leg at the Emirates Stadium on Thursday, which should allow manager Arsene Wenger the chance to rotate players ahead of the Carabao Cup final three days later.