Remove unwanted elements for a wp_nav_menu

I got it to work by reconfiguring the walker

 class custom_menu extends Walker_Nav_Menu {
   function start_el(&$output, $item, $depth, $args) {
    global $wp_query;
    $indent = ( $depth ) ? str_repeat( "\t", $depth ) : '';

    $class_names = $value="";

    $classes = empty( $item->classes ) ? array() : (array) $item->classes;

    $class_names = join( ' ', apply_filters( 'nav_menu_css_class',  array_filter( $classes ), $item ) );
    $class_names=" class="" . esc_attr( $class_names ) . '"';

    $output .= $indent . '<li>';

    $attributes = ! empty( $item->attr_title ) ? ' title="' . esc_attr( $item->attr_title ) .'"' : '';
    $attributes .= ! empty( $item->target ) ? ' target="' . esc_attr( $item->target ) .'"' : '';
    $attributes .= ! empty( $item->xfn ) ? ' rel="' . esc_attr( $item->xfn ) .'"' : '';
    $attributes .= ! empty( $item->url ) ? ' href="' . esc_attr( $item->url ) .'"' : '';

    $item_output = $args->before;
    $item_output .= '<a'. $attributes .'>';
    $item_output .= $args->link_before . apply_filters( 'the_title', $item->title, $item->ID ) . $args->link_after;
    $item_output .= '</a>';
    $item_output .= $args->after;

    $output .= apply_filters( 'walker_nav_menu_start_el', $item_output, $item, $depth, $args );
}
function start_lvl(&$output, $depth) {
    $indent = str_repeat("\t", $depth);
    $output .= "\n$indent<ul><div class=\"container\">\n";
  }
 }
  add_filter('nav_menu_css_class', 'my_css_attributes_filter', 100, 1);
  add_filter('nav_menu_item_id', 'my_css_attributes_filter', 100, 1);
  add_filter('page_css_class', 'my_css_attributes_filter', 100, 1);
    function my_css_attributes_filter($var) {
    return is_array($var) ? array_intersect($var, array('sub-menu-columns'))    : '';
 }