Pain in the Arsenal
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Arsenal Vs Rennes: 5 things we learned – Second-half shocker

By Andrew Dowdeswell

RENNES, FRANCE - MARCH 07: Sokratis Papastathopoulos of Arsenal looks towards his manager Unai Emery as he leaves the pitch after receiving a red card during the UEFA Europa League Round of 16 First Leg match between Stade Rennais and Arsenal at Roazhon Park on March 07, 2019 in Rennes, France. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)
RENNES, FRANCE - MARCH 07: Sokratis Papastathopoulos of Arsenal looks towards his manager Unai Emery as he leaves the pitch after receiving a red card during the UEFA Europa League Round of 16 First Leg match between Stade Rennais and Arsenal at Roazhon Park on March 07, 2019 in Rennes, France. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images) /
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RENNES, FRANCE – MARCH 07: Mesut Ozil of Arsenal shoots at goal during the UEFA Europa League Round of 16 First Leg match between Stade Rennais and Arsenal at Roazhon Park on March 07, 2019 in Rennes, France. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)
RENNES, FRANCE – MARCH 07: Mesut Ozil of Arsenal shoots at goal during the UEFA Europa League Round of 16 First Leg match between Stade Rennais and Arsenal at Roazhon Park on March 07, 2019 in Rennes, France. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images) /

3. The tie isn’t over… just

I will get onto why and how Arsenal and Unai Emery went wrong in the second half later, but for now, I will just spin forward and look at the second leg.

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Obviously, losing 3-1 in the first leg and taking a two-goal deficit back to the Emirates is not ideal. Far from it. But Arsenal not completely out of this tie. Rennes are certainly the favourites and the north London club have made it very difficult for themselves, but there are still some reasons for hope.

The first is that they have an away goal. A 2-0 victory is all they need to qualify. If they can score early on, they are right back in with a very good shout of the aggregate victory.

The second, which is perhaps more significant, is how well they played for the first half-hour or so. Arsenal should have scored more than the one that they did. Lucas Torreira missed a great opportunity, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang dallied on the ball. Even with ten men, the Gunners did still engineer a couple of openings. Rennes are dangerous on the break, certainly, but Arsenal proved they can create chances and score goals. This one is not quite over just yet.