Arsenal were struggling to get a proper foothold on the game in the opening exchanges, Gnabry was seemingly the only player showing any kind of endeavour as he attempted to drive at the Swans’ back four in an attempt to make something happen. It was this determination that led to him opening the scoring as he drifted infield from his original wide right position and pretty much found himself in a striker’s position. Having peeled off the shoulder of the last man, Gnabry found himself free to receive a Ramsey pass and with a confidence that belies his 18 years, drilled the ball past Vorm and into the bottom corner sending the travelling gooner
Power Serge
Normally, when young players tend to excel in the League Cup, they struggle to make the step up in Premier League games. Admittedly based on a significant lack of evidence that has purely been gleaned over the last 6 days, I can with some authority that our young German has turned that idea on it’s head. A decent display against Stoke last Sunday was followed up with a more lacklustre showing at West Brom. Against Swansea however, we were treated to a performance that showed far more maturity than his youthful years – capped off by scoring his fist senior goal to give us a second half lead.
When Arsenal were struggling to get a proper foothold on the game in the opening exchanges, Gnabry was seemingly the only player showing any kind of endeavour as he attempted to drive at the Swans’ back four in an attempt to make something happen. It was this determination that led to him opening the scoring as he drifted infield from his original wide right position and pretty much found himself in a striker’s position. Having peeled off the shoulder of the last man, Gnabry found himself free to receive a Ramsey pass and with a confidence that belies his 18 years, drilled the ball past Vorm and into the bottom corner sending the travelling gooner support into raptures.
At the risk of repeating myself, it makes sense to keep a level head when it comes to young players. However, given the speed at which he is seemingly justifying The Boss’s faith and his effectiveness in this game, it is extremely difficult not heap praise on Gnabry. Again, whether he fulfils this potential remains to be seen but all the signs seem to be good.
Left Jack
The obvious example of youth-to-first team success is Jack Wilshere. At just 21 and despite having already had a year of his career interrupted by injury, he is still one of the first names on the team sheet and almost always an automatic starter when fit. However, it would probably be fair the say that his season hasn’t quite yet sparked into life just yet. In a midfield currently bursting with talent, he’s not quite been able to stand out.
Against Swansea he put in a real mixed bag of a performance. Starting out in an unfamiliar wide left position, he struggled to impose himself on the game. Often caught too high up the pitch, Jack failed to offer enough protection to Gibbs at left back who, considering, performed fairly well against the runs of Dwight Tiendalli. At 2-0 he also almost gifted Swansea a way back into the game with a suicidal backpass to Wilfred Bony. Thankfully the Swansea man couldn’t capitalise.
That said, Jack did play a crucial role in both goals. Having been involved in the build up for Gnabry’s opener, it was then his brilliant, determined tackle in midfield to set up a delightful one-two with Giroud before the Frenchman laid it off for Ramsey to make it 2-0.
So much is expected of Wilshere but sometimes it’s easy to forget that he is still developing. Right now, he won’t always be sensational, but he will very rarely be bad. It goes without saying but he’s a very good player who is still sometimes working out what is best for him and he will only get better.
Weathering the Swansea storm
Gone are the days when we bemoan teams setting up ultra-defensively against Arsenal. Since the days when we were at our peak and sweeping aside teams with sheer force, football has evolved for the better. The kick and rush, one dimensional, direct style that English football was one famed for is largely gone. More and more teams try and adopt a more positive possession game and there are few teams that currently do it as well as Swansea. It’s a philosophy that has been ingrained at the club for a number of years across different managers and anyone who saw them tear Valencia to shreds two weeks ago will need no convincing of the benefits this style has reaped for them.
To that end, it wasn’t much of a surprise to see them dictate the play and pace of the game in the first 45 minutes. At no point did any of their players hold onto the ball any longer than necessary and when they lost it, they made damn sure they pressed right up onto our players to win it back.
Yet there was a steely resolution about our defensive play. For all their possession, Swansea created very little. The Arsenal back four were superb. Mertesacker once again leading by example and the full backs were disciplined enough to stop the threats the opposition posed from wide areas. Sagna went to sleep momentarily to allow Ben Davies to get the run on him for the Swans’ consolation but it only proved to be a minor blemish on an otherwise solid rearguard performance.
While we ceded a lot of the ball in the first half, the second 45 was a different story. The front six seemed to squeeze in and played far more narrow after the break. This meant Swansea had less room to play their game and allowed us to deploy a far tighter passing strategy rather than try an spread the play. A change that obviously paid off. As mentioned above, both goals came as a result of the Gnabry and Wilshere coming infield from wide areas.
[Insert Ramsey based pun here]
I think I’ve run out of things to say about Ramsey. Another game, an assist and a goal. Sky rightly named him man of the match but at half time, there’s no way you would have seen that coming. His Cardiff connections meant he was understandably going to get a hard time from the Swansea fans and during the first half, they must have thought they’d got to him. Given the high standards he had already set this season, he was started the match relatively poorly; attempting and failing with a number of ambitious passes in the opposition half of the pitch.
Of course, one of Rambo’s most admirable qualities, like his fictional namesake, is his refusal to back down and ability to fight back in the face adversity – be it a broken leg or criticisms from fans. This was encapsulated perfectly by the way he put a relatively poor first half behind him to become the match winner. His goal summed up exactly the type of player he has developed into. On ‘Goals on Sunday’, they highlighted this by freezing the moment Giroud received the pass from Wilshere and pointing out that any other striker in the same position would have taken on the shot. However, the frozen screen grab also featured a screaming Aaron Ramsey with arms outstretched demanding the pass. It didn’t matter that he was in an arguably worse position to score, he still managed to finish with aplomb, such is his level of confidence right now.
With 8 goals in 9 appearances this season, the Real Madrid hierarchy are probably starting to think they bought the wrong Welshman this summer. Much to out benefit, of course.
Szcz Machine
Our Pole in the goal proved to be as much of a key component in our win as anybody else in the team. Having faced criticism – some harsh, some justified – for his indifferent showings last season, he then began the season with something of a stinker on the opening day against Aston Villa,. Since that fateful day howeve
r, he has come back strong. Although, there was a hairy moment in the first half at Swansea when he was tackled by Michu, went walkabout trying to chase the ball and stopped when it looked to go out of play despite the referee not blowing up immediately (ALWAYS play the whistle!!!!). Thankfully for him nothing came of it but a wink and a cheeky grin certainly betrayed the sense of panic he had caused among Arsenal fans watching around the world.
After that, he rallied, and in the second half produced two great saves from Dyer and Bony (following the Wilshere error mentioned above) to keep Swansea at bay the rare moments they fashioned a decent goalscoring chance.
Szczesny also played a vital role in our decisive second goal. An acrobatic dive to prevent the ball going out for a Swansea corner led to him starting the move that eventually resulted in Ramsey’s goal. All in all, it was a fine, assured performance and exactly the kind you would expect from the number one of any team with hopes of challenging for honours.
Gunning for Glory
On a weekend when Chelsea, Spurs and both the Manchester clubs dropped points, the win was all the more significant as it opened up a gap on each of them at the top of the table. I won’t lie, it feels nice to look down on others. Our great start has led many experts to start discussing, without any sense of irony, what we may or not be capable of achieving this season, ignoring the fact that only six matches have been played to date. The league table doesn’t lie. We’ve started brilliantly and there’s no reason to believe we can’t maintain this form. That said, anybody who has ever watched any football will tell you how quickly things can change. Whether we are genuine title contenders this season, I don’t know. It’s September. Ask me in March… UTA.
EXAMPLE OF AD POSITION
