Despite being recently out of favour with Unai Emery, Mesut Ozil made a start for the Gunners this evening, hoping to put in a good shift and looking to cement his place back in the squad. Arsenal needed a strong performance at home, having started the match already one goal down from the first-leg. Especially with BATE's away goal advantage, the Gunners couldn't afford to concede.
Less than a two minutes were on the clock before Arsenal threatened Shcherbitski's goal. Alex Iwobi fired a rocket towards goal from inside the 18-yard box but it was straight down the middle and the BATE goalkeeper dealt with it well.
This was the precedent Arsenal would set for the remainder of the first-half as early pressure led Volkov to turn the ball into his own net off the back of a speedy Aubameyang cross. Arsenal continued to apply pressure, not allowing BATE many chances to build an attack.
Arsenal's effort was unrelenting as attempts from Ozil, Mkhitaryan, Iwobi and Aubameyang all could have seen Arsenal extend their lead. It was Mustafi however who doubled the Gunners' lead as he got up in the air to hammer home a header from one of Arsenal's many first-half corners. In doing so, he scored his first European goal.
BATE were not without chances themselves but Arsenal's defence, driven by Laurent Koscielny was strong, and sniffed out any danger to keep Cech on a clean sheet. BATE looked slightly lack-lustre going into the break as they found themselves 2-1 down (on aggregate) after the first-half.
Again, it was Arsenal who came out firing on all cylinders at the start of the second-half as they saw chance after chance go by within 10 minutes. Iwobi and Mkhitaryan were the playmakers for the Gunners as they were sending in several crosses which BATE dealt with well.
Laurent Koscielny had to be substituted early on in the second-half as he seemed to suffer with a left ankle injury, and was replaced by Sokratis. Unai Emery will hope that it is nothing too serious for the centre-back as he had only just returned to action for the Gunners after a lengthy spell out injured.
Sokratis proved to be somewhat of a super sub for Emery's side as he took less than five minutes to have an impact, scoring Arsenal's third with a rocket of a header from a corner. The power and accuracy beat Shcherbitski and extended Arsenal's lead even further. BATE would need to score two goals to take the score to 3-3 to claim the win on an away goal advantage.
Arsenal saw out the rest of the match in style as they continued to put pressure on BATE who left themselves less and less time to mount a comeback. Mesut Ozil was among those to have chances on goal but after a lengthy spell on the sidelines, it looked as though he lacked confidence as he couldn't produce the fine finishes we are used to seeing from him.
After a short period of added time, the final whistle went and Unai Emery's side celebrated the win which takes them into the round of 16 in this year's Europa League campaign.