Bate Borisov's burgers and budget flights emphasise size of Europa League shock win over Arsenal

The magnitude of Arsenal’s shock Europa League defeat by Bate Borisov was made clear when the Belarusian side were spotted feasting at a fast-food restaurant at Minsk airport on Friday morning.

Hours after their 1-0 victory over Unai Emery’s side, Bate’s players gathered in the Burger King restaurant in Minsk airport ahead of their flight to London ahead of next week’s second leg.

Bate’s players, including former Arsenal midfielder Alexander Hleb, flew in economy class alongside travelling journalists and Arsenal supporters the morning after they had secured one of the greatest results in the club’s history.

It made for a dramatic contrast with Arsenal’s players, who returned to their nutritionists and physiotherapists in London on the private plane they use for European travels.

The difference in nutrition and travel arrangements underlined the scale of the shock on Thursday night, when Arsenal were undone by a horrible playing surface and then had striker Alexandre Lacazette sent off for a wild elbow to the face of a Bate player.

Due to the Belarusian football calendar, Thursday’s round of 32 first leg was the first match Bate had played since December 13. They will now continue their pre-season work and begin their preparations for next week’s second leg from London.

Bate have been the champions of Belarus for the past 13 seasons but forward Nemanja Milic was the only one of their starters who was signed for a transfer fee. Milic cost £135,000 when he was recruited from Red Star Belgrade earlier this year.

Bate’s transfer record is currently around £850,000 - a figure which Arsenal midfielder Mesut Ozil earns in less than three weeks.

Ozil was again absent for Arsenal on Thursday after Emery did not consider him ready to play following an illness which kept him out the trip to Huddersfield last weekend.

READ MORE: Arsenal vs BATE - Five things we learned as the Gunners went down to Borisov

READ MORE: Arsenal slip at BATE Borisov with Lacazette denied goal before sending off

The German may be parachuted back into the side in time for the second leg of the Bate tie, however, which has now become arguably the most important match yet of Emery’s short reign in north London.

Ozil is not trusted by Emery and has started only five matches since November 11.  But he has been selected for recent home matches against Qarabag, Burnley and Cardiff, with Emery deeming the German suitable for matches against deep-lying, packed defences rather than higher-class opposition.

Failure to turn around the 1-0 deficit would mark the lowest point of Emery’s Arsenal career and the end of arguably the club’s best chance to qualify for the Champions League next season.

Emery was hired in part because of his expertise in European competition, having won the Europa League three seasons in a row during his time at Sevilla. If Arsenal do exit the competition, their last avenue to the Champions League will be finishing in the top four of the Premier League. They are currently in fifth, one point behind Manchester United.

Petr Cech, the Arsenal goalkeeper, admitted that they were so poor against Bate that they could have played for “another couple of hours” and still failed to find the net.

“It was one of those games where if we played for another couple of hours probably we wouldn’t have scored,” Cech said. “But there are games in football like that.

“You try, you play, the goal does not arrive and you have to go home with the result you don’t want but you have to pick yourself up and be ready for the second leg. This is the advantage of playing two-legged ties – when one game goes wrong you can always make up for it.”