Kevin Whitcher
I’ll start with a text from sometime contributor Ian Tanner. ”13 consecutive home wins, 10 in league. Swansea conceded one away goal before today. Couple of facts for your editorial. Got to be positive and balanced”
And indeed, in the opening half of this match, the visitors displayed genuine defensive organization and resilience, limiting Arsenal’s chances. Sanchez forced Fabianski into an excellent save, but that aside, there was not much to indicate that the home attack had the necessary imagination to create goal opportunities against Paul Clement’s side.
If only Arsene Wenger’s team looked as clued up at the back. Swansea scored when Laurent Koscielny made a hash of an interception and Bellerin was caught chasing his man. It could have been even worse before half time when Per Mertesacker tried to play football in his own area rather than clear his lines. Petr Cech saved his blushes as Ayew failed to get enough height on his goalbound chip.
A chorus of boos saw the team off at half time as panto season returned to the Emirates. It’s a familiar phenomenon these days, even seen at last week’s AGM. Interesting to note that, in response to a question there, Ivan Gazidis told us that all seats in the directors box are allocated and there are rarely any gaps – as the question had suggested (the idea being they could be given to shareholders). I counted 13 empty seats at 3.15. Only one of those in the two rows allocated to the opposition dignitaries. More interestingly, Stan Kroenke was not in attendance, evidently not able to hang around for 48 hours to witness the team he purports to love, if you believe the interview in the Telegraph.
Fortunately, the second half saw improvement. Arsenal fashioned a goal when an Ozil attempt was blocked and fell to Kolasinac, who dispatched it past Fabianski with interest. The left wing back was the team’s stand out player of the afternoon, and created the winner with a pull back to Aaron Ramsey to finish with his left foot. Swansea, even at 1-1, committed men forward, and the home side enjoyed the greater space, with more chances following.
Still, 2-1 was good enough, especially given the opposition had won at the stadium on three of their past five visits. Cause for optimism? Let me return to Ian Tanner’s 13 match winning run and look at the opposition…
West Ham
Leicester
Man Utd
Sunderland
Everton
Leicester
Bournemouth
Cologne
Doncaster
West Brom
Brighton
Norwich
Swansea
(The three games before that run started were against Bayern Munich (1-5), Lincoln (5-0) and Manchester City 2-2))
Manchester United aside – who played a mix and match team with their priority being the Europa League – frankly I would expect Arsenal to win the games they did. It’s when the likes of Tottenham, Manchester City, Liverpool and Chelsea visit the Emirates that we see the true measure of the team’s abilities. Last season, Arsenal won one of those matches. So let’s not get carried away. On the road in the Premier League this season, the team have rarely impressed, gleaning four points out of 15.
Hopefully Thursday will see a win v Red Star Belgrade (and wouldn't it be good to see Reiss Nelson played in a more attacking position and Eddie Nketiah get some more game time), before a visit to the Etihad to face the league leaders Manchester City, who apparently have defensive issues of their own. After that game, we will have a clearer idea of whether the run of home wins are the sign of a team that means business. Ok, I think deep down, we all know the answer to that, but football is a game of surprises…
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