Arsenal 8 Boreham Wood 0: Unai Emery era starts with a bang as Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scores 17-minute hat-trick

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Standard Sport14 July 2018

All managers want to make an immediate impact to life at their new club, but few debuts will begin quite as well as Unai Emery's has at Arsenal.

The former PSG and Sevilla coach has been busy building his new Arsenal squad in recent weeks, and took charge of his first Gunners game against Boreham Wood on Saturday.

Given that Boreham Wood currently ply their trade in the fifth tier of English football, Arsenal's opponents may have been a little worried to see the likes of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Alexandre Lacazette and Sokratis Papastathopoulos named in a strong starting XI.

And they had every right to be worried, as Aubameyang recorded a hat-trick just 16 minutes and seven seconds into Arsenal's first game of pre-season as the north London club sauntered to an 8-0 win.

Aubameynag kicked things off in style as he curled home a glorious effort from 25 yards into the top corner after just six minutes, and worse was to come for Boreham Wood.

The Gabon international was in the mood at Meadow Park as he headed home at the back post after a fine run and cross from Ainsley Maitland-Niles to make it 2-0 eight minutes into the game.

And Aubameyang had his hat-trick just a little over the quarter-hour mark, confidently tucking home a penalty high into the net to all but end the game as a contest.

Reiss Nelson made his breakthrough last season, and immediately went about trying to impress new boss Emery with an impudent volley to make it 4-0 after 34 minutes.

And Aubameyang then turned provider with a through-pass for Lacazette from the left flank, with the French striker finishing low to make it five six minutes before half-time.

Emery made 11 changes at the interval, and Eddie Nketiah - another promising youth graduate - showed quick feet to turn home a cross at the near post seven minutes after the restart.

But Arsenal were not finished there, as Jeff Reine-Adelaide struck the Gunners' seventh goal of the afternoon from long range with 19 minutes left on the clock.

Arsenal fans were afforded a glimpse of new signing Matteo Guendouzi late on, while Henrikh Mkhitaryan scored their eighth of the game after a creative backheel assist from Nketiah to cap a perfect start for Emery.

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