UK Edition
Swansea 3 Arsenal 1: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang must wonder what he's let himself in for as Arsene Wenger questions team's 'confidence'
As he awaits the finalising of his transfer, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang will doubtless have watched his new team from one of the finest hotel suites London has to offer, anticipating the most generous contract the club have ever agreed, and wondering just what he has let himself in for.
What will have been clear to Arsenal’s putative record signing is that the club is emerging from the Alexis Sanchez era currently looks a great deal like the old one that lost games at critical points of the season against less-celebrated opposition nurturing a greater hunger. This defeat to Swansea City, bottom of the Premier League at the start of the night, felt like a shattering blow to Arsene Wenger as he tries to navigate an unprecedented January window of change.
It was a fabulous performance from Carlos Carvalhal’s team, and for their new manager who has taken ten points from 15 including wins over Liverpool, Watford and now this, breathing new life into the team. But Arsenal are stuck in the same old story and this one feels that much worse, coming at a time when they are making bold decisions about all personnel other than their long-serving manager.
With Aubameyang still awaiting the completion of his transfer, Wenger saw no alternative in the closing stages to turning to the substitute Olivier Giroud who is expected to move to Chelsea before Wednesday’s deadline. He spoke wistfully later of the decision to sell Giroud and that he never doubted the commitment of the Frenchman being summoned from the bench by a club that no longer wants him.
To no-one’s great surprise, Giroud did not give Arsenal the ending to his career they would have liked, and neither could Henrikh Mkhitaryan, on his debut, score the decisive goal. Having taken an unexpected lead through Nacho Monreal, on 33 minutes, Arsenal conceded immediately and then went on to lose the game in the second half when Petr Cech made a monumental error to create Swansea’s second.
Wenger went through the familiar checklist of failings afterwards – “unusual and massive mistakes”, allusions to a lack of confidence – before settling on the conclusion that there was “no rational explanation” for the defeat. But this leaves his team eight points outside the Champions League places and they have won just three of their 13 away games, leading to the rational explanation that the manager is under some pressure.
Not so Carvalhal, whose promise of a miracle is looking ever more plausible with this victory that lifted his team out the relegation zone. There were two goals from Sam Clucas, breaking from midfield, and another from the man of the match Jordan Ayew – his a result of Cech’s calamitous attempt to clear the ball in the 61st minute that went straight to the Swansea striker.
Afterwards, Carvalhal outlined his simple but effective plan, to stop Arsenal attacking quickly on the transition: to close the space down when they did have the ball and then to hit them hard on the counter-attack with speed and directness. “When we arrived we [Swansea] were breathing like a dying man,” Carvalhal said, “then we had some oxygen [in the win] against Watford, now we are alive, we are breathing, we are not dead anymore.
“The word I kept hearing when I came was ‘miracle’. I said miracles do not happen, this depends on [ordinary] men and we can do it. We have achieved nothing so far. We are in a good position.”
The Swansea manager picked out the hold-up work of Ayew, whose aggressive break down the right also made Clucas’ second goal, a superb display of forward play. Clucas was ruthless in front of goal and at the back Federico Fernandez and Alfie Mawson were excellent. They got forward when they could and it was centre-half Mawson who played the ball inside Laurent Koscielny to make the first goal scored by Clucas.
Before then, Swansea had conceded from a Mesut Ozil cross from the right, the last of ten passes as Arsenal built patiently from the back up to Alexandre Lacazette who laid the ball off to his German team-mate. Ozil shaped a ball to the back post and beyond Kyle Naughton who could not stop Monreal burying for his fourth of the season.
They only had 26 per cent of possession but Swansea did not waste any of it and having had the best of the early chances, Clucas was immediately sent on his way to beat Cech with his left foot at the goalkeeper’s near post. Mkhitaryan finally came on after the hour, and within a minute, Swansea had scored again.
In the aftermath of the Ayew goal it was to Monreal whom Wenger and then Aaron Ramsey vented their anger, the full-back having let the ball go out for a throw-in from which Arsenal had lost possession. “I was angry because there was no need to let the ball go out for the throw-in,” Wenger said. “We had the ball and we could play straight away. When you have a throw-in and you are nine against ten on the pitch why should we put a handicap like that on our own team? We can play the ball and attack straight away.”
Cech went to clear Shkodran Mustafi’s awkward back-pass and barely made any contact at all leaving Ayew a free shot at goal. With Arsenal attacking at the end it was Ayew got down Arsenal’s left and made the chance for Clucas who bounded in to finish from close range.
Cech tweeted later that “Although mistakes are part of the game I always expect 100 per cent from myself and I’m not happy with the one I made today”. He said that it was “back to work tomorrow” for Arsenal, and presumably their new £60 million man, although whether even he can stop them going back to the same old disappointments remains to be seen.
GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!
SWANSEA HAVE A THIRD! What a performance this is! Incredible.
Monreal makes a mess of his stupid acrobatic bicycle kick clearance, Mustafi doesn't get close enough to Ayew, who just seems more driven, hungry and determined to get past the defender than the defender is to stop him, moves all the way to the six yard box and Clucas appears from nowhere to batter the loose ball into the roof of the net.
86 mins
Ozil still seems like the most likely to make something happen for Arsenal and is drifting everywhere to try and link play, always looking for that bit of space to thread the final ball through. Swansea working hard to steal the ball and counter-attack but Arsenal are quick enough to evade the press for now.
Mustafi and Koscielny are now about 15/20 yards inside the Swansea half.
82 mins
Arsenal fire some beautiful short passes together on the edge of the Swansea box and Ozil opens up the pitch for Monreal to attack down the left. His low cross is blocked and Arsenal have to start again. Swansea are now in defensive mode... and Mkhitaryan's high punted cross will suit them perfectly.
80 mins
Giroud's first involvement is to be offside. Ozil is booked for dissent. Swansea working really hard to press Arsenal as they try and play out from the back and it's absolutely working.
Ramsey stumbles into space on the left of the Swansea box, Mkhitaryan takes over and fires a low ball into the box but nobody is there to tap it at goal.
77 mins
Here's a story for you - Giroud is about to come on! Arsenal all over the place at the back and in midfield and Arsenal bring on a striker for Iwobi. A two striker system for the final 15 minutes in what could be Giroud's final Arsenal match. If this were an ITV drama, he'd score a hat-trick of bicycle kicks starting now.
75 mins
If Ozil wasn't sure whether he should sign a new Arsenal deal or not, these next few minutes might help him decide.
MKHITARYAAAANNNNN has just missed the easiest of headed chances he might ever have. Oh what a miss. The ball is chipped in to the penalty area, he's six yards out and doesn't even connect with the ball, or if he does, brushes it gently.
69 mins
Monreal takes Naughton out as Swansea threaten on the counter-attack but he gets away without a yellow card. Ki lines up the free-kick from wide right, bends to the far post and Mkhitaryan heads out for a throw.
Bellerin fouls Ayew and is booked, this time the free-kick is on the left. Mustafi and Fernandez are getting a little too friendly with each other and the referee has to tell them to wise up.
GOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLL!
Nightmare for Cech! Ooooohhhhhh no that's a horrible mistake.
Monreal throws the ball to Mustafi, who is being tracked by a forward and has to pass straight away to Cech, who is surrounded instantly by three strikers. Why is Monreal throwing that so quickly? Cech thrashes at his clearance and knocks the ball straight to Ayew to tap in to an empty net.
56 mins
Elneny is booked for a handball after controlling the ball on his arm. Swansea nearly force a shooting chance in three passes. The free-kick is in their own half. What are Arsenal playing at here? It's like none of the midfielders have considered it a good idea to block space or watch the runners.
50 mins
Swansea look so well drilled here. Their defensive shape is making Arsenal run out of ideas after the centre-circle and Lacazette might as well not even be on the pitch for all he's done so far. As soon as they win the ball they break at lightning speed and that is done once they've lured Arsenal into sending all the attacking players forward. And then Arsenal's lack of balance leaves them really exposed.
Arsenal's unbalanced midfield
The same problems again. Always the same. Elneny is meant to be the holding midfielder but seems so concerned about Xhaka and Ramsey running forward that he's ending up as a third centre-back half the time. That is leaving the space between midfield and defence completely open and Swansea are attacking with three forwards to keep the defence busy, easily winning the second ball as they chase it since the rest of Arsenal's team is attacking up the other end of the pitch.
44 mins
Xhaka can redeem himself with a free-kick from wide right. The delivery is excellent but nobody can get on the end of the whipped cross. Koscielny stays forward but can only head softly towards goal. Swansea launch the ball forward towards Ayew, who is unable to control it this time. Swansea seem to realise that Arsenal don't like it when teams go at them through the middle.
GOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!
That didn't last long! And this time Ozil is the villain! Scratch that - Xhaka is absolutely at fault for this. He's been useless so far.
Koscielny has Ayew to deal with, Xhaka stands there like a neep and Clucas is played in between the two to finish at the near post. Great goal for Swansea! Straight back in it.
27 mins
Xhaka watches a Swansea player break from deep but doesn't do anything like enough to close him down. Fair enough, maybe he's in charge of watching someone else. No. Swansea bypass him like a crowd member, Van de Horn sprints forwards and suddenly Swansea have three against two! The pass is just behind the Swansea man! Elneny puts it behind.
21 mins
There he is. Sat there all Giroud-ish, living life on the Arsenal bench.
Alex Iwobi is having one of his walking days, where he thinks about running when he might have a chance to get on the ball but otherwise he's there in body alone. Koscielny and Elneny are charging at people to win the ball back. Even Ozil is running around.
7 mins
Arsenal are in control of possession at the moment, working the ball from side to side but Swansea sit deep and absorb the pressure before hitting long balls to the strikers. This one's worked! Dyer chases Mustafi and is much faster, the ball is hit to Ayew... who shoots... and it takes a deflection! Is this going to land over Cech's head!?
Yes, but wide of the goal.
The importance of Mo Elneny
I've not written an awful lot about Swansea this season so far but if I had done, would post a tactical analysis of something - possibly the first rate job they did in stifling Liverpool last week. Rest assured Swans fans, just because I'm about to present to you another Arsenal related piece does not make this a liveblog biased. No ma'am!
Good evening
Hello everyone and welcome to our liveblog for Swansea vs Arsenal. This one takes place in Wales (FAO Neil Warnock) and should be very exciting, especially since Swansea's last match saw them dismantle the Formula One car of Liverpool!
Jack Wilshere is ill, which gives license to Aaron Ramsey to play some football! And even better than that... Olivier Giroud, supposedly signing for Chelsea tonight or tomorrow, is on the bench! Incredible scenes.