Swansea vs Arsenal (16/17)

Team news:
Arsenal: Mohamed Elneny is representing Egypt at the Africa Cup of Nations and is unavailable to Arsenal, while midfielder Francis Coquelin (hamstring) and defender Per Mertesacker (knee) are out. However, playmaker Mesut Ozil (illness) is expected to return, as are defender Laurent Koscielny (cramps) and goalkeeper Petr Cech, who missed the FA Cup win over Preston North End last weekend, and striker Danny Welbeck (knee) will be looking for more minutes after a cameo role at Deepdale.


Swansea: Swansea City left-back Neil Taylor faces a spell on the sidelines after fracturing his cheekbone in training, while new signing Luciano Narsingh will miss out on a debut against the Gunners after picking up a slight calf injury.



THE MANAGER
Paul Clement was appointed as Swansea’s third manager of the season last week, after the Jacks dismissed Francesco Guidolin in October, then had an unhappy three-month period with Bob Bradley. This is only Clement’s second job, having taken charge of Derby in 2015/16, but he boasts tremendous experience as a coach and assistant, most notably under Carlo Ancelotti at Chelsea, PSG, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich.

FORMATION
Clement has been in charge of just one Swansea match so far, last weekend’s 2-0 FA Cup defeat to Hull City, and therefore it’s difficult to judge his strategy so far. However, he fielded a 4-3-3 system in that match, and is unlikely to deviate significantly from that. Expect just one striker: Borja Baston started last weekend but Fernando Llorente could lead the line here. Gylfi Sigurdsson has often been fielded as a false nine, but is more likely to drift inside from the wing.

STRENGTHS
Swansea have generally been among the most intelligent, methodical passing teams in the Premier League over the past half-decade, and they still boast some extremely reliable passers. Leon Britton is still an option in the centre of the pitch, while Ki Sung-Yeung plays a deeper, more disciplined holding role and Jack Cork is a good all-rounder. Leroy Fer provides more energy and drive, pushing forward into goalscoring positions.

DANGERMAN
Sigurdsson has often played well against Arsenal in the past, and is the man they must stop here. He scored a superb, long-range free-kick at the Liberty Stadium a couple of seasons ago, and netted at the Emirates earlier this season when dispossessing Granit Xhaka and firing home. He’s renowned as a fine playmaker, but his long-range shooting ability is probably his main attribute.

AREAS TO TARGET
Swansea have conceded the most goals in the Premier League: 45 in 20 games, a completely unsustainable rate if they wish to survive this season. There’s a lack of a reliable partnership at the back, with Federico Fernandez, Alfie Mawson, Jordi Amat and Mike van der Hoorn all possibilities for this weekend. With Olivier Giroud in such good form, Arsenal might go more direct than usual.

http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/20170113/scouting-report-swansea-city-v-arsenal

With Liverpool and United playing each other, and City having a potentially away day at Everton, it goes without saying that we can't afford to drop points tomorrow.

Swansea are awful, even with the new manager buzz. They lack pace so aren't as dangerous in transitions as they used to be, their attack lacks creativity, and their defending has been woeful all season. Set-pieces will be their biggest threat due to Sigurdsson's quality delivery and Llorente's aerial prowess.

The big thing for us, in light of our previous two away games, is if we can start better and not end up in a position where we have to chase the game. The defending has to be a lot better than it has been. I'll be paying extra attention to how the Xhaka-Ramsey partnership copes defensively and if it offers the backline enough protection.

With Giroud up top I'm not expecting us to be great offensively, but as long as one of Ozil's crosses lands on his forehead we should be okay

Giroud 88th minute, Arsenal 1-0 Swansea

Absolutely despise Giroud

Main man Clement got this. 3-2 Swansea.

-Swansea have lost 12 of the 14 Premier League games this season in which they conceded the first goal (W1 D1).
-No side has netted the opening goal in more PL matches this season than Arsenal (14), although they've lost three of those games - only Southampton (4) have more defeats.
-No Premier League team has scored more headed goals this season than Arsenal (11 - level with WBA)

Pls win

El Gunner wrote:Are we going to go back soon to Alexis playing up top?
I love Giroud and I know he is on top form at the moment, but Alexis is a waste out wide.

We won't for sure (which is a shame) but Giroud is usually a real weapon against these poorer teams, especially with Özil coming back. If we won't bring the Özil-Alexis chemistry back, Özil-Giroud really is the closest thing to that.

No brainfarts from Xhaka/Mustafi and we'll be good.

Not a great game this.

We've struggled to play around Swansea's initial press (I've never typed this before, I swear) and haven't created a great deal of opportunities. It's gotten easier to get the ball forward as the half has gone on, though.

Swansea have been poor but could have got back into the game with a potential penalty (replay showed a dive, but it was very tight) and a careless giveaway from Gabriel leading to a counter.

Giroud seemed to hurt himself after scoring so might not make the second half.

we are shit but Swansea are worse. A midfield that is struggling to control the game and a defence full of brain farts. We need to add more one goal because I can't see us keeping a clean sheet today.

chances are coming now, we need to kill the game off.

Big 45 !!!, now we need to add the one more and keep a clean sheet

Is Iwobi trying to emulate Lampard, those deflections

Not sure what to make of Alexis' reaction to being subbed. He was super depressed about it.

Anyway, comprehensive win in the end. We put on a good press and really penned them in. A touch fortuitous with the own goals but we were making chances.

Iwobi was fantastic. Ramsey had a good game as well. He actually looked fit today.

Iwobi Golden Boy

Alexis obviously wanted to stat pad but no point risking him for those last 10 minutes especially with the tackles Swansea were beginning to put in. Overall a decent win, we started slowly as usual and a better side would have at least punish one of our mistakes but it was comfortable in the end due to how shit Swansea are.

We still have the same issue in the midfield, as soon as you put a pressure and intensity. We struggle to control games .Impressed by Iwobi although asking him to continue this type of form until the end of the season will be too much. I hope Giroud's injury is not too serious, We need for next week against Burnley.

I thought it was a solid performance against a bad team, and this sense of autopilot domination will help get the squad into a strong mental state.

Ox looked dangerous. Iwobi was excellent. Good work all around.

OG hat trick