Aaron Ramsey and Alexandre Lacazette led the way as Arsenal crushed CSKA Moscow 4-1 at Emirates Stadium in the first leg of their Europa League quarter-final, putting the Gunners in complete control of the tie.
Although Ramsey’s early opener was quickly cancelled out by a delightful Aleksandr Golovin free-kick, Arsenal rarely looked in danger of failing to win, as the brilliant Mesut Ozil soon turned on the style to win a penalty that Lacazette fired home.
Ozil then set up Ramsey for his glorious improvised second, before also picking out Lacazette – starting for the first time since January 30 – as the Gunners opened up a three-goal lead.
Chances continued to fall Arsenal’s way after the interval, though they were nowhere near as clinical and CSKA appeared to take encouragement from that, seeing an Alan Dzagoev header disallowed for offside.
And although Ramsey – chasing a treble – hit the post late on, there were to be no further goals, as Arsene Wenger’s men take a comprehensive lead into next week’s return leg in Moscow.
