After a slightly stressful festive period and
third round of the FA Cup, it was nice for Arsenal not to need a late goal from
Olivier Giroud to bail them out again as they comprehensively beat Swansea on
Saturday. The 4-0 win will have been an eye-opener for Paul Clement as he begins
the task of trying to keep the Swans in the division, and if they continue to
play like they did in the second half against the Gunners, that job is going to
be nearly impossible.
Arsenal
continued the slightly annoying recent trend of starting poorly in the first
half as the hosts created a few decent openings, pressed high up the pitch and
restricted space for the likes of Ozil and Alexis, but once the Gunners took
the lead, they never looked like surrendering it.
Olivier
Giroud continued his excellent run of form by scoring the opener in the first
half. The only surprise was that it wasn’t in the last ten minutes and wasn’t a
scorpion kick. The Frenchman seemed to pick up a knock to his ankle early in
the game and aggravated it trying to get on the end of Aaron Ramsey’s low
cross. He picked himself up and fired in from close range moments later as
Alexis collected the ball from Ramsey, crossed for Ozil, and the German’s
blocked header fell perfectly for Giroud to find the roof of the net with his
right foot.
He
immediately signaled to be substituted, but battled through to half-time and
for 15 minutes into the second half. By that time, the game was almost wrapped
up after the second Arsenal goal. Arsene Wenger’s team started the second half
in much the same way they did at Preston in the previous game. There was more
intensity about the play as they didn’t let the home side dictate the terms of
the game. They pushed Swansea back, piled on the pressure and made them panic.
Even though it was 1-0 at the break, the first half was slack from the Gunners,
but they were much sharper in the second period. Similar things have happened
now at Bournemouth, Preston and Swansea, and against better opposition, if
Arsenal continue to start badly, they’ll be punished more. It’s something
Arsene Wenger needs to address, but it was pleasing that even though the team
were winning, they reacted to the quality of their performance rather than the
scoreline. It would have been easy to think that it 1-0, not try and up the
tempo and just look to slow the game now. Instead, Arsenal massively upped
their game and swarmed all over the Swans in the second period.
This
second-half improvement wasn’t driven primarily by the returning Mesut Ozil or
Alexis Sanchez, but by Alex Iwobi. The Nigerian buzzed around dangerous areas
and always offered himself to the midfield as a forward pass. His strength on
the ball while maintaining close control really shone through in the second
half, as did his mature decision making. He’s not just got the skills to play
well with his feet, but increasingly his brain is thinking a couple of steps
ahead of others, which is very impressive for a young player like him.
Iwobi’s
goal-bound shot after a period of concerted Arsenal pressure doubled the lead
after half-time as Jack Cork’s touch looped the ball over Lukasz Fabianski.
Shortly afterwards, Iwobi drove into the Swansea box again and his low, drilled
cross was put past his own goalkeeper by Kyle Naughton. The second one was
definitely an own goal, but hopefully the dubious goals panel don’t credit Jack
Cork with an own goal when Iwobi’s shot was likely to go into the bottom
corner. The Arsenal attacker definitely deserved a goal for an industrious and
eye-catching performance.
At
3-0, the game was done. Arsenal kept on attacking though with the forward
players sensing a chance to boost the goal difference. When Arsenal have been
in these situations this season, it’s been refreshing to see them continue to
attack and not just kill the game off. With the league table being very tight
around the top four, it could make a difference in May.
Iwobi
was involved again as the Gunners bagged a fourth. His through ball set
Oxlade-Chamberlain away down the left but his cut-back couldn’t quite find
Aaron Ramsey. But the ball fell to the lurking Alexis Sanchez, who expertly
swiveled to volley into the top corner to continue his excellent recent
form.
At
4-0 and with 12 minutes to go, Arsene Wenger made the understandable decision
to give Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez a rest by bringing on Lucas Perez and
Danny Welbeck. While we all absolutely love that Alexis hates being
substituted, it was a bit disappointing to see him having a sulk on the bench
afterwards. I don’t think it as much of an issue as some are making it out to
be as Alexis just wants to play, but he does also have to respect the manager’s
decision and take the bigger picture when the team were 4-0 up. Imagine the
criticism Wenger would get had he left him on and a frustrated Swansea player
injured the Chilean with a crude late tackle. It was absolutely the right
decision from the boss to give him a rest.
There
will be much tougher games for Arsenal in the coming weeks, but with Manchester
City, Manchester United and Liverpool all dropping points this weekend, it was
vital Arsenal got the three points. Alexis and Giroud may have scored and
continued to be the headline-makers, but it was a youngster from the Arsenal
academy that really drove the team on to an excellent second-half display.
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