One of the reasons for hiring Unai Emery was his record as a Europa League specialist. The man from the Basque country has won this competition three times in succession with Sevilla, and given Arsenal find themselves in this company at the moment (however desperate they are to get out of it) there is a certain logic in choosing a coach who knows how to get over this particular line.

So, having gone the distance before on a few occasions, are his current team strong enough to emulate that in the Europa League? Emery paused for a moment before forming his answer. “We can,” he mused, not entirely convincingly. “In the last 16, one is Arsenal, but it’s very difficult. A lot of teams want the same. We need to feel this competition with our supporters. This feeling can give us more possibilities. We need to feel stronger in this competition with everybody and create this atmosphere around us.”

This tie with Bate Borisov might not live long in the memory, and this Arsenal team could really do with a click or three to find the required surge of belief; a real sense of a team hurtling towards a mission, to hope any further than one round at a time. But a comfortable night’s work where Arsenal progressed while avoiding a hint of danger at least gives Emery something with which to work.

He is under no illusions: more positive impetus is needed to ignite genuine forward momentum. Notably, Mesut Özil was back in the side as Arsenal finally had a contest on a track deemed flat enough for Emery to reselect the deluxe enigma. The playmaker with the gossamer touch and light work ethic had previously started only one game since Boxing Day, which is not a scenario that serves either player or club well. It was telling that for all the sideshow that splutters over social media and beyond on this particular subject, Özil played 90 minutes without it being much of a drama.

“I said to him: “Carry on and be available like today, like the last two weeks, to continue training and helping us,’” said Emery. “I am happy, this is the way we want with him. His spirit and quality was good, important and positive. Be available, carry on – today he showed what he wants.”

Özil ended up with the armband after the captain, Laurent Koscielny, went off as a precaution while feeling a muscular problem. Özil showed flashes of imagination, but whether it is enough to convince his manager to keep him in the thick of more robustly competitive matches remains to be seen. Emery was up front about the fact he will make some changes to cope with the schedule that brings home games on Sunday against Southampton and Wednesday against Bournemouth before it all cranks up with the next round of the Europa League, sandwiched between high-octane fixtures against Tottenham and Manchester United.

Even with Özil adding some grease to the attacking grooves this was more of a functional performance than an uplifting one. The scoreline came courtesy of a Bate own goal and two corners finished off by Arsenal centre-halves. Still, whatever gets you through the night.

Watching Arsenal plod past Bate, dominant if not particularly inspiring more or less all evening, it was reasonable to at once compliment them on a calm and secure result while worrying for them against tougher challenges.

Emery was adamant at the end of a flawed evening in Borisov that his team would turn the tie around in the second leg. That confidence looked well-founded as Arsenal enthusiastically dominated the first three minutes and took the lead in the fourth. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang skipped away down the right channel and hooked in a cross that should not have been troublesome to a line of Bate defenders. One of them, the unfortunate Zakhar Volkov, jutted out a leg and turned the ball past his own goalkeeper.

Barring a couple of rare Bate breaks the rest of the game was mostly a case of Arsenal passing it around blandly, probing for openings, and generally shooting wastefully. With Alexandre Lacazette suspended the onus was on Aubameyang to lead the line, with the supporting cast in theory pushing up to help. The trio of Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Özil and Alex Iwobi roamed around, but the overall pattern of attacking play missed the cohesion and precision to turn the screw.

The breakthrough came from set pieces as first Granit Xhaka’s corner was met by Shkodran Mustafi’s thumping header. Then the plan was repeated as Sokratis Papastathopoulos, on for Koscielny, made an immediate impact by glancing in Arsenal’s third goal of the evening.

The crowd drifted away and Arsenal await the last-16 draw on Friday with Emery’s desire for more in this competition, however it comes, burning on.