great game.. but i saw this coming.. games against Swansea has been the same in the last 2 years.. both teams playing possession football trying to create chances through the middle and finally it comes to the team breaking the first..

we know how Laudrup knows to stop Arsenal.. but Wenger played this game with tactics.. Swansea pressed hard in the midfield and were very accurate in their passing and holding.. we were happy to stay back and defend that fighting for the ball.. the only chance was to break catching them high up.. and no way we can do this without Walcotts pace.. but full credits to our defence esp Gibbs for mopping all their attacks..
2nd half we showed our clinicality and one touch passing breaking them twice within 5 mins.. and last 20 mins we played defending trying to the see the game out.. but Swansea showed their good one touch passing catching Metskrs lack of concentration which ended in some nervy moments.. but we are confident these days we see out such kind of games 100%..

so a very efficient away win.. to make things more sweet, all our rivals dropped points..

Sczeny - 7 esp some very good high ball catching..
Sagna - 6
Metskr - 6 one moment of lapse..
Kos - 6
Gibbs - 7
Flamini - 6 this was certainly one game where Arteta could have done better in holding the ball and starting our attacks from back..
Ozil - 6 that miss
Ramsey - 7
Wilshere - 7 played today under clear instructions as a LW.. great heart shown there to track up and sown and 2nd goal belongs to him..
Giroud - 6 great hold up play.. the only reason we could reach the final third.. shot wide.. he should score more from such angles.. why not give it a shot than trying for the difficult placement..
Gnabry - 7 MOM.. i thought he would flop today.. after a unimpressive tiring league cup game.. Wenger could have played Arteta today and benched him.. but Wenger showed his trust on the youngster and he paid back.. was less effective in the wings initially.. then constantly shifted through the middle.. his dribbles and passing troubled Swansea.. and a great way to score his first PL goal.. and dealt well physically and tracked back well to defend.. cant ask anything more from a 18yr old..

I didn't see BFG have a moment of lapse.. goal wasn't his fault
I also disagree that Arteta should've started over flamini. I thought flamini played well and against an attack minded team like swansea at home, be silly to leave him out on current form.

One thing I didn't realise with Ozil prior to his arrival is that he really offers nothing defensively at all.. There was a moment on Swansea's right flank in the first half where he simply gave up chase and allowed Dyer to cross. Now although Dyer is much quicker than him and he may not have made it (still might've).. you just can't allow a cross like that, or worse allow the time for them to cut inside, which Dyer could have very easily done if he realised Ozil had given up the chase.

I must admit I don't watch much la liga and haven't seen him that often over the past few years, mostly in the CL and international. But I remember watching him for germany in south africa (where he was amazeballs and people started taking notice of him) and he seemed to offer a lot more by way of shutting down opposition.

Don't get me wrong, you get the package with a player and I still think he has been and will be tremendous for us and is without a shadow of a doubt the world class proven player who we have needed for so long despite a weaker performance yesterday. But if you draw up a "spectrum of the attacking midfielders", with 1 being the lazy playmaker and 10 being the hard working, ball winning attacking mid. I always thought of Ozil as about a 4.. but it seems he has moved closer to the 1 mark since 2010.

Great mental strength yet again though to get the victory and better second half - Need to step it up for midweek clash. Need this injury list to clear up asap.

Raptorgunner wrote:Ozil doesn't need to prove himself, he has been class since his arrival. Give him more time he will be even better.

yes u are right. he needs time. like all new players.

Great stuff again Jay.

So, another win. Fantastic stuff. 5 league wins in a row, 8 successive away league wins, 12 successive away wins in all competitions, 9 successive wins in all comps. Ramsey 8 goals in 9 games. Great stat after great stat.

I thought it was a professional performance. The first half was quite poor technically from both sides. The defences were on top. But after half-time we were outstanding - the two moves for our goals were brilliant. And Ozil should have scored too, after another lightning counter.

Ramsey was instrumental yet again - goal and assist. And that assist was quite beautiful, as was his goal. I felt Gnabry did very well considering everything - 3 starts this week and with the pressure of replacing Walcott, who, despite his critics, provides a vital thing to our side, pace. When the game seemed to be just pass, pass pass, Gnabry was the one who drove at the Swansea side, dribbling and shooting, and he got his rewards with his goal.

The most impressive thing about this current winning streak is the fact that we are missing an entire midfield and attack:


When 'experts' or opposition fans say 'you have no depth' it always makes me giggle. How can your bench look good when an entire front 6 of first-team players are injured? Bizarre. I don't see another side in the top part of the league who can say they have similar injury problems, and yet we're ahead of them all.

I'm not getting carried away, however. Spurs aside -and we always beat them at home anyway - we haven't played anyone of significance, even if some of the games such as Marseille, Fulham & Swansea all away, are very tricky.

Napoli at home will be our biggest test of the season by far. They're top of Serie A (at time of writing), have a super squad, and were able to rest Higuain and Hamsik on Saturday. West Brom away next weekend will be tough too. If we can get through these two games, and then hopefully get one or two back from injury during the international break, it'd have been a sensational opening to the season.