It was like a night of redemption for Arsenal on Wednesday when they travelled to the Hawthorns to face West Bromwich Albion in the 2nd round of the EFL Cup.
Having failed to score a single goal in their first two league matches of the season, the Gunners finally found the back of the net for the first time in the 2021/2022 season, repeating this five more times to win 6-0 on the night.
For the first two league games against Brentford and Chelsea, both of which Arsenal lost 2-0 each, Mikel Arteta was unable to field his desired first team due to having contracted COVID-19 and the EFL Cup tie was a good avenue to reintegrate his returning players and new signings, like Martin Odegaard and Aaron Ramsdale.
West Brom manager, Valerien Ismael, however, opted to rotate his squad, making 11 changes to his side that won against Blackburn Rovers in their last game, giving a host of young players their debut.
Arteta skewed away from the norm at Arsenal of featuring younger players in the EFL club to field a strong team. Perhaps, if either manager had known what the other was planning, their selections may have been different.
Aaron Ramsdale and Martin Odegaard also made their debut for Arsenal, albeit, it was Odegaard's second debut and both were impressive. Ramsdale making some fine saves to keep a clean sheet, after a nervy start for him.
Arsenal were not expected to lose and rightly began to deliver from the 17th minute. A neat move from Saka saw him unleash a shot which was punched by goalkeeper, Alex Palmer, but only as far as Aubameyang, who tapped home for his and Arsenal's first goal of the season.
The Gabon captain made it two with another close range finish. This time, it was Nicholas Pepe who had hit the post following a fine move orchestrated by Mohammed Elneny, allowing Aubameyang score his second of the night.
The third goal of the game came in stoppage time of the first half courtesy Nicholas Pepe. Aubameyang's effort was saved by Palmer. His acrobatic follow-up turned assist for Pepe to complete another tap in finish.
Bukayo Saka, who had been very influential in the game deservedly got his own goal in the 46th minute, before Aubameyang completed his hat-trick with a trademark finish into the top right corner afterwards.
Alexandre Lacazette, who was playing his first game of the season after recovering from COVID-19 completed the route after receiving Pepe's ball finely weighted lay off across the face of goal to fire into the bottom corner.
Arsenal will now face League One side, AFC Wimbledon in the 3rd round of the competition.
Concluding Thoughts
It was definitely a sight of relief for Arsenal fans and the manager who has Ben under fire to see the team finally get to score and win a game this season.
This is definitely not a kind of game to judge Arsenal by and thankfully, Arteta knows that as they take on Manchester City on Sunday in their next game in the Premier League as they look to revive their season.
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