Arsenal were made to make do with a point against Red Star Belgrade on Thursday night as Arsene Wenger's side struggled to find a way through the Serbian outfit's stubborn rearguard. Despite their frustration though results elsewhere meant that the draw was still enough for Arsenal to seal their place in the knockout stages of the Europa League.
Wenger kept faith with his young team from the previous games in the competition as Arsenal went into the game looking to maintain their 100% start to their European campaign.
Olivier Giroud had the first real chance of the game after 10 minutes after Ainsley Maitland-Niles skipped past his man down the left and crossed low for the Frenchman but Borjan in the visiting goal got down well to keep his effort out.
Chances were at a premium in the first half and Giroud was the next to really threaten as Joe Willock drove forward and slipped in the striker, only for Borjan to race off his line to smother his effort.
That sparked a period of end-to-end football as Red Star countered and set away Srnic down the right, but his effort from just outside the box was tipped over by Matt Macey.
Macey was called into action again from the resulting corner with one of the saves of the night. The visitors caught Arsenal out with a quickly-taken set-piece and after a shot from range was deflected up into the air Savic was on hand to rise and head towards the far corner, only to see his effort pushed onto the bar by Macey.
Arsenal should have been behind just before the break when Richmond Boakye was sent scampering clear but he fluffed his lines when one-on-one and contrived to blaze wide.
As a result, the two sides went in at the break level and that scarcely looked like changing in the second half.
Giroud blazed over from range shortly after the break before Srnic fired tamely at Macey at the other end as the game threatened to spark into life but it never quite managed to do so.
Boakye looked to have wasted another great chance when he failed to connect with Srnic’s low cross from the right but a late flag meant it wouldn’t have counted anyway,
As the game went on Arsenal continued to dominate possession and looked the most likely to make the breakthrough.
The hosts wanted a penalty on the hour mark when Wilshere went down in the area but the referee was unmoved.
The England international almost took matters into his own hands minutes later when he combined with Maitland-Niles down the left before dinking the ball over Borjan from six yards, only to see Damien Le Tallec, brother of former Liverpool man Anthony, acrobatically clear off the line.
Boakye had a great chance to snatch the win for the away side late on after being put in down the left channel with Mathieu Debuchy laying prone on the ground but he could only flash an effort wide of the near post with his left foot.
There were some decent performances from Arsenal's youngsters and Wenger won't lose too much sleep over the result given that Koln's victory over BATE Borisov meant that the draw secured Arsenal's place in the last 32.
Next up for the 'Gunners' is a tough trip to face Premier League leaders Manchester City at the Etihad on Sunday.