It took the intervention of substitute Nicolas Pepe to save Arsenal with two sublime free-kicks in the last 10 minutes of their Europa League group game against Vitoria Guimaraes at Emirates Stadium.
Prior to Pepe’s coming on board in the 75th minute, the gunners were losing 2-1.
The player however scored five minutes later with a curling effort from 25 yards.
He repeated the feat in stoppage time as Arsenal avoided their second straight defeat and retained their place at the top of Group F.
Former Tottenham youngster Marcus Edwards had earlier cut inside and fired into the bottom corners to give Vitoria a shock lead, before Arsenal’s Brazilian teenager Gabriel Martinelli nodded in his fifth goal in just his third start to make it 1-1.
Details later…
