Super-subs Ramsey and Giroud fire Gunners to opening-night victory as Wenger's men blast back to edge seven-goal thriller

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If he had known it was going to end successfully, Arsene Wenger would probably have taken victory in this remarkable fashion.

Better than a comfortable 2-0 coast at home any day. More inspiring than three points taken in the conventional fashion, certainly. Here is something on which to build. A fightback, a show of strength and spirit. Arsenal won with courage and gusto. They can take that to the bank.

A word of warning, though. In doing so, they also papered over more than a few, long-standing cracks. Three crosses, three goals. Wasn't three at the back supposed to guard against that? 

Olivier Giroud's header finds the net crossing the line despite the best efforts of Kasper Schmeichel in the Leicester goal

Olivier Giroud came off the substitutes' bench to score a priceless winner for Arsenal in the 85th minute against Leicester

There was controversy in the build-up to Arsenal's equalising goal for 3-3 with a handball before Aaron Ramsey's strike

With Leicester winning 3-2, the game turned on a double Arsenal change as Giroud and Ramsey came on after 67 minutes

Kasper Schmeichel tries in vain to hook the ball away but striker Giroud's looped header had already crossed the line

Referee Mike Dean checks his watch before awarding the goal as the Emirates Stadium erupted on Friday night

MATCH FACTS, PREMIER LEAGUE TABLE & PLAYER RATINGS

ARSENAL (3-4-3): Cech 5.5; Holding 5.5 (Giroud 67, 7), Monreal 6, Kolasinac 7.5; Bellerin 6, Xhaka 6, Elneny 6.5 (Ramsey 67, 7), Oxlade-Chamberlain 7; Ozil 6, Welbeck 7 (Walcott 75); Lacazette 8

SUBS NOT USED: Ospina, Iwobi, Mustafi, Coquelin

MANAGER: Wenger: 8

GOALS: Lacazette 2, Welbeck 45, Ramsey 83, Giroud 85

LEICESTER (4-2-3-1): Schmeichel 7.5; Simpson 6.5, Morgan 6.5, Maguire 7, Fuchs 6.5; Ndidi 7, James 7.5 (Iheanacho 82, 6); Mahrez 7, Okazaki 7 (Amartey 70, 6), Albrighton 7; Vardy 8.5

SUBS NOT USED: Chilwell, Gray, Iheanacho, King, Hamer, Slimani

MANAGER: Shakespeare: 7.5

GOALS: Okazaki 5, Vardy 29, 56 

BOOKED: Morgan 

REFEREE: Mike Dean 7

ATTENDANCE: 59,387

MAN OF THE MATCH: Vardy 

Ratings by Sami Mokbel 

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 So there is work to be done on the training ground. In the meantime, though, here was a result to savour. In a see-saw game, Arsenal were once in front, twice behind, before rallying to level and then win in the final minutes. Their revival was inspired, even if they appeared to catch a break with a Mesut Ozil handball, unnoticed, in the build-up to the third goal.

That should not be allowed to obscure the bigger picture though, which was that Arsenal found a way to break down a Leicester team known for resilience, at least when it suits. Up to that point, they had absorbed pressure well, with new signing Harry Maguire particularly impressive.

Yet, under pressure, Leicester's nerve snapped. They tired, grew slack at the back, looked more like, well, Arsenal. Wenger's introduction of Aaron Ramsey and Olivier Giroud as substitutes proved a master-stroke, too, both men scoring as 2-3 became 4-3. Neither goal was Bergkamp beautiful but, in their way, worth every bit as much as a work of art.

For the first — Arsenal's third —Granit Xhaka recycled a cleared ball and found Ramsey on the right, driving on and stabbing his finish past Kasper Schmeichel.

The second was a taste of Leicester's own medicine. Ozil took a corner and Giroud got in front of Leicester's central defence to send a quite magnificent header into the net. Since arriving in June 2012, the Frenchman has scored more headers than any other player in the Premier League. From despair, the stadium became delirious. Arsenal couldn't blow it from there. Could they?

No, they couldn't — but there is a reason the locals still doubt. Earlier, Alexandre Lacazette had scored the fastest opening day goal in Premier League history — and his team were trailing 2-1 less than 30 minutes later.

The previous fastest goal to start a league season was scored by Faustino Asprilla for Newcastle against Sheffield Wednesday in 1997. One minute and 41 seconds. Lacazette beat this by seven seconds, and on his league debut, too.

So at least there is no worry about the new striker getting off the mark. Lacazette's goal was a typically smart, instinctive finish. Hector Bellerin laid the ball back to Mohamed Elneny, whose cross found Leicester captain Wes Morgan with a double handful. Unable to decide which of his two men to address, Morgan was caught between the pair, allowing Lacazette to react with whip-cracking sharpness, turning a glancing header into Schmeichel's net.

Summer holidays and a surprise Friday night start to the season had left the Emirates a little emptier than usual, but the noise told its own story. The first game is always the time for optimism, and here it was writ large. A goal up less than two minutes in. Positivity abounded, but did not last.

Jamie Vardy rises to glance home a textbook header from Riyad Mahrez's near-post corner to put Leicester 3-2 in front

Vardy celebrates in front of the travelling Leicester supporters but the game unravelled for the Foxes in the final 10 minutes 

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger shows the strain with his smiles along Wembley Way back to scowls before the late drama

In the fifth minute, familiar chaos. Marc Albrighton's cross went deep and Arsenal's defence did not deal with it. Petr Cech came out in emergency mode but Maguire got their first and headed it back across goal. Now Cech was stranded. He needed a team-mate to come to his rescue. No chance. Shinji Okazaki outjumped Xhaka and Leicester were level. Smiles froze. Head-shaking began.

Arsenal had good chances after that but, worryingly, whenever Leicester threatened they looked like scoring.

When Danny Welbeck played a one-two with Ozil, Maguire was equal to the shot. When Welbeck rode several challenges after 26 minutes, Leicester scrambled clear. When Sead Kolasinac struck a low shot goalwards it was saved by Schmeichel. When Xhaka misplaced a pass on 30 minutes, Arsenal went 2-1 down.

It was the first of the night from Jamie Vardy, a simple take that reminded Arsenal what they missed when he turned them down in 2016.

Arsenal's midfield played a series of meaningless short passes that served only to put them under pressure, Xhaka cracked and gave it to Albrighton on the left. He crossed to Vardy at the far post to head the ball past Cech. 

Alexandre Lacazette's goal - after 94 seconds - is the joint quickest opening goal to a Premier League season

There were just 160 seconds separating Lacazette and Shinji Okazaki's goals in an enthralling opening period in north London

An Arsenal equaliser just before half-time quelled potential mutiny. Welbeck's strength forced an attacking position again, the ball falling to Kolasinac who unselfishly slipped it inside for the England man to tap home. It shouldn't have been this hard, but Arsenal make it hard. That is their problem — and it continued after half-time.

Leicester's third came from the oldest of textbooks. Riyad Mahrez whipped in the corner from the right, Vardy rose and met it sweetly, Cech was flat-footed on his line.

Nacho Monreal, the Arsenal defender whose frantic efforts to contain Vardy had failed, beat the ground in frustration. It says much about Leicester that they took this route to goal so successfully, but much of Arsenal, too. They should be better than this. They should, at least, have learned.

The determination to make it difficult continues, though, and at Arsenal things are rarely as straightforward as they seem. Alexis Sanchez watched from the stand, his future still uncertain. Beyond that, with the new experience of Thursday night football in the Europa League looming, few are sure what this season will bring. Did it bode well, scoring goals, showing fight to get back in the game? Or did the three conceded, and at home, merely suggest the same old problems?

What Arsenal will turn up this season? All of them, by the looks of it, and maybe all at once, too.

Arsenal made the perfect start to the season with a second-minute goal but soon found themselves behind through Vardy

Vardy has now scored five goals in his last five Premier League appearances against Arsenal having scored twice in the loss

Danny Welbeck was on hand to tap the ball home and draw Arsenal level at 2-2 following good work from Sead Kolasinac 

The Premier League season started on a Friday night for the first time in the 25 years it has been in existence

Wilfred Ndidi started in the centre of midfield for the Foxes and he is closed down early on by Mohamed Elneny on Friday

Hector Bellerin was tasked with getting forward from a right wing-back position but his defence was left often exposed

The former Lyon striker scored with just his second touch in Premier League football having taken the kick-off on Friday

Okazaki was on hand to expertly direct the ball into the net from Harry Maguire's headed cut-back after just five minutes

Welbeck looks to cut the ball back from a tight angle as Schmeichel rushes out in a bid to thwart the England forward

Vardy managed to escape Arsenal's porous three-man backline to complete the turnaround after Arsenal's early opener

Arsenal forward Alexis Sanchez did not look impressed as he watched on in the stands with his side trailing the Foxes

Rob Holding was given a tough examination especially during the first 45 minutes during an open game at the Emirates

Riyad Mahrez returned to his brilliant best to be a constant thorn in the Arsenal defence throughout the league curtain-raiser

Welbeck was on hand to breach the Foxes defence - who believed there was an offside when the ball was threaded through

Wenger will be concerned with his side's defensive display as Leicester made hay with the space afforded to them at times

The Arsenal marking from Mahrez's 56th-minute corner was non-existent as Vardy flicked his side back in front

The England striker wheeled away behind the goal to celebrate with his delirious supporters at the Emirates Stadium

Ramsey made a huge impact off the subs' bench and scored with a sublime finish but Mesut Ozil handled in the build-up

Dean appeared to have the perfect view of Ozil's handball in the lead up to Ramsey stroking in the equaliser after 83 minutes

Kolasinac and Lacazette appeal to the linesman after Giroud's header had come down from the crossbar over the goal line

The Emirates threw up another seven-goal thriller to begin the new Premier League season after Liverpool's win last term