Swansea City 0 - 2 Arsenal: Professional away performance

First Half

I've said it before, but whenever we play Swansea, the first half is always a contest of two sides attempted to exert their dominance over the other with the ball. Swansea had their periods of sustained possession, then when they didn't make a breakthrough, Arsenal had theirs. Rinse and repeat.

Swansea enjoyed longer spells due to Arsenal choosing not to press them when they were passing the ball in their half and between their defenders. Instead, Arsenal preferred to keep their shape, deploying two banks of fours and a deep defence. For the most part, it worked well as our midfielders tracked back to go with runners and we quickly shut down passing channels. The only occasions Swansea got in behind was when there was a lapse of concentration from an Arsenal defender, firstly when Monreal allowed Rangel to run in behind and secondly when Mertesacker failed to get close enough to Michu. Fortunately, both players shot wide.

As an attacking threat, Arsenal weren't very good. Giroud struggled to assert himself on the Swansea defenders and Walcott was largely anonymous on the right hand side. Arsenal's best attacking outlet was Oxlade-Chamberlain, who hit the bar and tested Vorm from distance. Arsenal's inability to sustain pressure on Swansea may have been down to a lack of midfield support from the likes of Cazorla and Diaby and a lack of decent movement from Walcott and Giroud.

The first half ended in a stalemate.

Second Half

Usually, the second half is more open as both sides push forward in search for a goal. This time, though, it continued where it left off in the first half. Arsenal started brightly and probed Swansea's defence, but Swansea came back into it for a spell. Neither side created any good chances.

Arsenal managed to take the lead when they won the ball back from Swansea via some aggressive pressing. There may have been a foul in the build-up, but nonetheless, Arsenal went forward with Cazorla. The Spaniard ran with it across Swansea's area and cut the ball back across goal where Arsenal had two men free at the back post. Giroud almost ruins the attack with an awful touch, but recovers and knocks the ball to Monreal. Monreal's shot isn't great, but it somehow skims past Vorm into the bottom corner. It wasn't great defending from Swansea, who failed to clear the cross, win the ball back off and Giroud and, fatally, win the ball back from Monreal.

Arsenal were largely comfortable afterwards and successfully killed the game off on the counter attack. Giroud played a good pass to release Aaron Ramsey. Ramsey's pass across to Gervinho isn't great, but the Ivorian's touch takes it away from the defender and he slots home with good composure.

2-0 the final score.

Praise where praise is due

For the second time in a week, Arsenal win 2-0 with an impressive defensive display. Swansea were receiving excessive praise for their ability to hold onto the ball, but most of their possession was pointless. They failed to test Fabiasnki all game and this was largely in part to how solid and organised Arsenal were at the back. In the end, Swansea were resorting to playing it long, and their goalscorer, Michu, was almost playing in central midfield just to get on the ball.

It's evident that after the debacle against Spurs, we've worked on our defending. Wenger also made the key decision of replacing Vermaelen with Koscielny and it's worked wonders. Koscielny has looked every bit the defender he was last season.

We often criticise Arsenal for the work they don't do, so it's only right to give them praise for the work they have done and the decisions that have been made.

Wenger got his subs right today, too. Gervinho and Ramsey were both lively and more effective than Diaby and Walcott, the latter of whom has lost his form. He doesn't get his subs right often, so it's nice to see them working this time.

It's a shame that there's an international break now because we're starting to build momentum. Away wins against Bayern and Swansea are great results and should have restored a lot of the confidence and belief. There is still some work to be done on the attack and a couple of players like Arteta, Walcott and Giroud need to improve, but this is a very good chance to get a good run of results together and really attack that top four.

gervinho

What a performance

They had 0 shot on target.

We looked very good defensively, din't create much going forward but deserved the 3 points.

Cazorla was class today

Two of the most derided Arsenal players joined hands to provide the perfect sucker punch...

We did well today, gotta give Wenger some credit, he got everything spot on including sub. Only problem from this match is Diaby and his habit of taking too long to do anything other than dribble

Swansea really doesn't give a crap anymore though, their last few 2nd half performance has been disaster.

Great win, Monreal, Gervinho.

Theo was just useless, he should be dropped when Podolski comes back.


Poor Vermaelen.

Professional, efficient, and a great defence. I had almost forgotten that we were capable of such things

This was an effect of the Bayern game guys

the team remembered how to defend

Totally deserved the win, great defensive display and exactly what I want to see in our 9 remaining matches.

Man of the match for me is Arsene Wenger, the whole team defended much better than usual and his subs were spot on. Offensively we had a good game but of course we can do better, I feel Arteta, Diaby, Walcott and Giroud didn't exactly have great games... I feel they can do much better especially Arteta and Diaby.

Individually: Fabianski had very little to do, back 4 was top, Arteta and Diaby I thought were poor, Cazorla very good game, Walcott and Giroud very frustrating both have to improve.

Overrall great display and a very important win, hopefully this will put Spurs and Chelsea under more pressure (although both have easy games on paper tomorrow).

@ urban

like I said, the allianz effect

it seems we now know how to defend after testing our new style vs bayern

Koscielny - Big Fvcking German >>>>> vermaelen + anyone

I am not sure who said this ( i think urban )

But we actually had a proper system against Spurs too but Individual mistakes costed us that match.

This current defensive and pressing system is pretty good "so far"

Real test against the likes of Everton/United

That was exactly the kind of match that, in recent seasons, we've seen opponents nick with a late goal - was great to see a close match against a team that have given us problems where Arsenal were simply in control for large stretches, fairly calm, not too much fuss. Thought Cazorla was inspiring. Glad that Gervinho did something well. Two fine 2-0 victories in a row!

The game plan we used against Spurs, Bayern and Swansea is almost identical to the game plan we used at the start of the season before the Chelsea game. The attack suffers a bit but we just look a much better side playing this way.

I hope we continue playing this way for the remainder of the season. I think our attack will improve when Wilshere comes back in for Diaby and if we can get our forwards on form.

I would actually consider starting Gervinho or Chamberlain (if Podolski is fit) over Walcott against Reading, because he's not been great in recent games.

I don't think Walcott's issue is that he has no motivation anymore or that he is happy with what he got ( contract ) so isn't trying anymore

It just looks like he has no steam. he pretty much looks jaded. Doesn't run as much and generally looks tired.

I would indeed start Oxlade or Gervinho

for me first half was not good enough and our pressing wasnt that efficient (partly due to swansea playing style). The root of this was diaby (our main mid fielder).
I said before the match it was going to be an easy win. i thought diaby would settle in but he didnt get going. he needs playing time and needs to play some games in reserves to get his fitness levels up agian.
Ramsey is doing great and his preffered position is with arteta. Like Real Madrid, Xabi and Khedira link up attack and defence. We have arteta and ramsey to do that. They both have similar qualities. Walcott failed to make an impression because of lack of mid field support from diaby.
The sub stiutions was excellent and arsenal removed the weak link. this led to two excellent well taken goals
One final thing i would like to say regarding GERVINHO if someone can please ask wenger to give him some confidence in his ability. he has AMAZING talent. Only problem with him is his decison making. I say to move him as false nine. Like RVP. He will get goals for sure. MARK MY WORDS !!!

Thank you Mr Forehead!

Theo needs a spell on the bench. Four or five poor games now.

Ramsey did well when he came on. Diaby was poor. Still no Rosicky?

Nice result and a good performance.

We are actually playing like a professional team now! lol.

Clean sheets, counter-attacking, concentration. What's happening?

Fabianski and Koscielny good again, while Cazorla was our best player.

Reading (h) West Brom (a) Norwich (h)

Great chance for 9pts if we repeat this and Bayern displays.

two games with Vermaelen and Chezz on the bench.

Two clean sheets.

Coincidence? I think not.

Koscielny looked really good to me. Giroud... not so much. But he was better than Walcott lol. Ox had a good first half and a poor second one.

I thought Jenkinson was not good at all. He makes such bad decisions on the ball. Diaby was poor too... but he's just rusty.

Gervinho seems hungry... however,i shall not be fooled again lol. I'll wait until he shows good form for 2 months before I praise him.

Good game. Not an easy opponent at all.

Great win
hope we can keep it going

and yeah their passing was mainy in their own half

-Passes: 619-454
-Accuracy%: 88-85
-Final 3rd: 119-171
-Accuracy%: 76-78
-Shots: 9(0)-16(6)

Santi definitely ran outta steam but still gave his all
completed 5 dribbles

Was really frustrated with Theo and Giroud.

How long will Wenger keep starting him? he is much better when coming off the bench.

Great analysis Jay.

The 1st half part is true. Both teams always try to "show off" in a way and try to dominate even if it means keeping the ball at the back. It was the case today too.

I thought Wenger wasn't really uncomfortable when they had the ball. He knew what to expect and we were really professional about it.

We limited swansea into passing without any purpose. There was this one Michu moment where he nearly scored but apart from that it wasn't much threatening at all.

We didn't have many chances either till the last 20 minutes. But i am glad we took ours. We really needed the 3 points.

my MOTM was Cazorla.