Europa League round-up: Summer Arsenal arrival makes the best XI
Both Arsenal and Chelsea secured comfortable wins over Qarabag and Vidi FC on Thursday night as the pair maintained their 100% start to their respective Europa League campaigns. However, it’s the former who are represented in our Europa League team of the week as the Gunners secured a comfortable 3-0 win at Qarabag.
The latter’s group rivals, meanwhile, romped to a resounding 4-1 win at BATE Borisov, with Brazilian Leo Jaba playing a starring role in the victory. The 20-year-old winger had a direct hand in all four goals in the encounter, scoring two from two shots and assisting two from two key passes. One successful dribble contributed to a WhoScored rating of 9.55, better than any other Europa League player this week.
Islam Slimani features in attack after netting twice in Fenerbahce’s 2-0 win over Spartak Trnava. The Algerian has struggled in the league after his arrival in Turkey, scoring just once from six starts in the Super Lig, but showcased his quality in Europe as he hit the back of the net with two of his eight shots, won five aerial duels and made two successful dribbles to return a WhoScored rating of 9.00.
Rounding off the top three top performers this week is FC Astana wideman Marin Tomasov after his influential role in their 2-0 win over Ligue 1 outfit Rennes. The 31-year-old scored with his sole shot in the victory and provided an assist from two key passes in the commendable win to move to the top of group K. One successful dribble, five key passes and five interceptions saw the Croatian return a WhoScored rating of 8.87.
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While the trio impressed, duo Dusan Basta and Ognjen Vranjes returned WhoScored ratings of 4.31 in their respective defeats to Eintracht Frankfurt and Dinamo Zagreb. The Lazio defender received his marching orders in injury time of the first half, while Vranjes, too, was dismissed on the stroke of half time as Lazio and Anderlecht fell to losses that hinders their chances of progression to the next round of the Europa League.
