Arsenal 3-2 SwanseaHome team scorersTheo Walcott 26
Theo Walcott 33
Mesut Ozil 57
Away team scorersGylfi Sigurdsson 38
Gonzalez Borja Baston 66
Welcome to the madhouse, Bob. This was an historic occasion, with an American manager taking charge of a Premier League team for the first time. It was one that Bob Bradley will never forget, even if he and Swansea City came out on the wrong side of a five-goal thriller.
Every time Arsenal looked to have taken a decisive grip on the game, Bradley’s team rallied. First, Gylfi Sigurdsson cut the home team’s 2-0 lead in half, towards the end of the first period and, on 66 minutes, the substitute Borja Bastón made it 3-2 with his first goal in Swansea colours, after his £15.5m summer move from Atlético Madrid.
It was an afternoon to forget for Granit Xhaka and he was sent off for a chop on Modou Barrow, which left Arsenal with 10 men for the final 20 minutes, plus stoppage time. Bradley’s visitors ramped up the pressure and, during a gripping finale, Barrow and Sigurdsson missed gilt-edged chances.
But Swansea could not force the equaliser and, when the final whistle blew, it meant that the club had equalled their worst-ever start to a season. For Arsenal, this was a sixth straight Premier League win and it put an end to their recent difficulties against Swansea. Bradley, though, could take numerous positives.
He was an all-action presence in his technical area and it was his boldness that stood out. The man who, until recently, had been in charge of Le Havre in the French second division went with two strikers at the outset, in the shape of Sigurdsson and Leroy Fer. Neither of them are known as out-and-out strikers but they both know where the goal is and, at the top of Bradley’s in-tray, had been the issue of Swansea’s lack of goals.
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Bradley’s players worked to keep their shape and Arsenal’s breakthrough had not been advertised, which was a positive that he could take. On the other hand, it stemmed from the first piece of shoddy defending from his team.
Never mind the heavy touch that Jordi Amat took following Héctor Bellerín’s burst up the right and headed cross into the danger area, which squirted off the central defender’s thigh. The really bad bit was how Amat allowed himself to be levered off the subsequent chase for the ball by Walcott. With Lukasz Fabianksi off his line in unconvincing fashion, Walcott squeezed his shot inside the near post.
Swansea’s afternoon would soon get worse. After a slick Arsenal move had finished with Bellerín seeing a shot deflect wide, Santi Cazorla swung over the corner. Jack Cork stooped to head clear but the ball ricocheted back to Walcott and he had the time to take a touch, spin and beat Fabianski.
Shkodran Mustafi had hit the top of the crossbar with a header in the 12th minute and Alexis Sánchez had lobbed just wide on the break. Arsenal looked well set. But Bradley could punch the air with real feeling when his team fashioned a lifeline.
It was Sigurdsson who crafted it but the goal owed much to Xhaka’s first aberration of the afternoon. The Arsenal midfielder, who has the fit-again Francis Coquelin breathing down his neck, tried to outfox Sigurdsson with a trick close to his own penalty area. He got it wrong, Sigurdsson robbed him and, all of a sudden, the Icelander was in. His left-footed curling finish into the far corner was of the highest class.
Swansea even threatened the equaliser in first-half stoppage time from Sigurdsson’s free-kick but Amat could not direct his header past Petr Cech. It was a good chance and, at that point, the game felt finely poised.
Arsenal looked as though they had the extra gears. Walcott fluffed a close-range volley for his hat-trick from Özil’s header, after twinkle-toed work from Alex Iwobi before Özil decided to show him how it was done, from a much more difficult chance. Sánchez’s cross was looped high to the back post and Özil cut across the ball beautifully with his left foot to send it flying into the roof of the net.
Swansea refused to accept they were beaten and, with Barrow offering electric bursts up the right, they picked themselves up off the canvas once more. Barrow laid on his team’s second goal for Bastón after beating Nacho Monreal and crossing low. And, after Fer had blasted high after Bellerín’s weak clearance following a corner, it was Barrow that Xhaka chopped down to receive his red card. Barrow had outstripped Xhaka and the Arsenal player’s reaction was cynical in the extreme.
Swansea pushed into the closing stages and Bradley felt his heart race. Barrow sent a free header straight at Cech; Sigurdsson blazed high from Barrow’s cutback and Fer, twice, went close with headers. Walcott hit the post and, at the very end, the crossbar on the counterattack. Arsenal squeaked home.
Guardian
