Arsenal 0 Swansea 1
What a way for Arsenal to blow their long undefeated run. Having spent the best part of 85 minutes huffing and puffing without being able to muster much more than a light breeze in Lukasz Fabianski’s direction, Swansea took the opportunity to break upfield to blow their house down.
When Bafetimbi Gomis, barely fit and sent on to amble about for the latter stages, glanced his head at Jefferson Montero's cross, David Ospina could only claw the ball back from a yard behind the line. The goalkeeper was alarmed to see goal-line technology confirm the surprise matchwinner which consigned Arsenal to their first defeat in the Premier League for three months. An evening of Arsenal frustraton was summed up by the repeated sight of Fabianski, their old friend, invoking the immutable law of the ex. He saved everything with calm composure.
Swansea arrived in the frame for the bittersweet chalice of a Europa League finish. With Garry Monk’s ambivalence about the merits of qualification, and the fact they travelled with sufficient striker problems for Gylfi Sigurdsson to slot in at false nine, it would have been understandable if Swansea had been pliant visitors. Not so.
Arsenal might have expected a fruitful evening when they carved Swansea open early on. They stitched together a silky move, with Mesut Ozil and Aaron Ramsey picking their way up the pitch with one touch passing, until Olivier Giroud arced a header over the bar.
The sight of Arsenal selecting the same line-up for the fifth consecutive league match for the first time in 20 years suggests how contented Arsene Wenger is with the balance they have struck. But they did not easily find their best groove. The passing was just off-beat, the movement slightly flat. It felt more like the handbrake football of their draw against Chelsea than the freewheeling drive of their win against Hull.
Swansea found enough rhythm and motivation to mostly keep Arsenal’s passing at a safe distance in the first half. They looked unflappable in their organisation. They excelled in shutting off the spaces Wenger’s creators try to exploit and proved themselves tricky customers to break through.
It almost had the air of a pre-season friendly, even though there are still aspirations at stake - even if Swansea are unsure Arsenal want second place and are eager to maintain their form before the FA Cup final. A relaxed evening of passing tweaked up a notch when Alexis Sanchez appealed for a penalty midway through the first half. As the Chilean tried to burst onto a lofted free-kick he felt impeded by Neil Taylor. The referee Kevin Friend waved away his appeals.
Monk’s team were not shy to run at Arsenal when they could. The sprightly Montero threatened, while Jonjo Shelvey was never short of the desire to impose himself on the game.
Arsenal were straining to test Fabianski. With half-time approaching Giroud tried his luck with a shot on the turn. It drifted wide. Then Sanchez, having dropped into his own half, scooped a pass in search of Ramsey’s run. The Welshman could not get there ahead of Fabianski.
Montero broke with menace only to drag his shot off target. The referee’s whistle signalled the end of a half devoid of saves from either keeper, which told its own story.
The Emirates crowd hoped for a spark, a lift - anything really - as the second half got underway, but it looked suspiciously like more of the same as Swansea ambled forward and Ki Sung-yueng took a shot. It was deflected and trickled away.
Arsenal perked up a little. The urgency levels rose and the game thankfully opened up. Giroud had a couple of chances he could not quite connect with clinically enough, and then both Sanchez and Ramsey bustled into space on the right and drove shots at in the side netting. Santi Cazorla nimbly found some room to take aim, but Fabianski was able to smother.
Swansea’s mission became almost totally focused on the defensive, with the rare counter providing relief. Ospina had to be alert to cut out Shelvey’s tantalising cross.
Wenger tried to shake it up by introducing two of the players who have had to wait patiently for chances, Jack Wilshere and Theo Walcott.
Arsenal stepped up again. Fabianski repelled a Nacho Monreal effort, and then the keeper suddenly appeared to take on supernatural qualities where he had a spell of inviting Arsenal players to shoot straight at him. Were they spooked? Sanchez, Walcott and Cazorla all more or less aimed at the Pole’s catch.
Thanks to the blend of resilience and a Gomis’s moment, Swansea’s Europa League participation looks on whether they like it or not.
Guardian Service
