Aaron Ramsey and Alexandre Lacazette both bagged braces as Arsenal beat CSKA Moscow 4-1 in the first leg of their quarter-final clash in the Europa League on Thursday.
The Welshman and the French striker will likely take most of the plaudits following a resounding win at the Emirates, although Mesut Ozil was the unsung hero as he played a crucial part in all four goals to help hand the Gunners a commanding lead going into the second leg.
Parity was not to last too long, however, as Hector Bellerin moved into space in the channel to drill into the middle, where Ramsey was waiting to lash home beyond a helpless Igor Akinfeev in the ninth minute.
CSKA hit back almost instantly, though, following a piece of brilliance of their own. Laurent Koscielny was guilty of giving away a cheap free kick on the edge of the box, allowing Aleksandr Golovin to curl home a standout free kick beyond Petr Cech.
Gaps opened up throughout the CSKA defence and Arsenal hit straight back when Ozil was brought down by Georgi Shchennikov inside the area, allowing Alexandre Lacazette to grab his first goal of the game from the spot as he converted an adroit penalty.
At times CSKA’s positioning was comical and Ozil continued to make them pay, this time he found space on the edge of the area to chip in Ramsey beyond the last man.
The Welshman responded by lobbing Akinfeev with the deftest of finishes first time to embarrass the onrushing keeper.
The first half was to get even worse for the Russian side too, Ozil again the architect, this time on the right as the playmaker drove into space before cutting across the face of goal, where Lacazette was free to drive home his second and put the Gunners into a 4-1 lead before the break.