Samuel Clucas gave Swansea a shock lead but they could not hold on to it as a drilled strike from Sead Kolasinac and low finish from Aaron Ramsey momentarily move the Gunners into the top four
SEAD KOLASINAC was Arsenal’s hero as he inspired their second-half comeback against the Swans.
A fine finish from Sam Clucas gave the Welsh club a deserved half-time lead.
But Kolasinac levelled after the break and then set up the winner for team-mate Aaron Ramsey to earn the Gunners all three points.
Arsenal had the first chance when Per Mertesacker headed Alexis Sanchez’s free kick straight at Lukasz Fabianksi.
Swansea took the lead against the run of play in the 22nd when Tammy Abraham appeared to have few options as he retrieved the ball by the touchline on the halfway line.
But the on-loan Chelsea youngster played a sublime pass inside Gunners’ wing-back Hector Bellerin to his team-mate Clucas, who was bursting through on the overlap into the box.
As Petr Cech came off his line to narrow the angle, the Swans’ left wing-back kept his cool to slot the ball through the keeper’s legs for his first goal for Swansea since his £15million summer switch from Hull.
Clucas near got his second for the club in the 40th minute when his 25-yard snap shot whistled inches wide of Cech’s right post with veteran Czech stopper rooted to the spot.
The briefly sparked Arsenal back into life as Sanchez jinked his way across the Swans’ box before unleashing a shot which former GunnerFabianski did well to tip over the bar.
But the Gunners could and should have gone in 2-0 down at the breakafter their defender Mertesacker was mugged in his own box by Jordan Ayew, who found himself with just Cech to beat.
Yet instead of squaring for his team-mate Abraham to tap into an empty net, the Ghanaian chose to go it alone and saw his shot blocked by Cech.
You feared that would cost the Swans and become a pivotal moment of the match.
And so it came to pass as with six minutes of the restart the score was level as the ball after Mesut Ozil’s shot was blocked by Alfie Mawson.
But the loose ball ran kindly on the edge of the area to Kolasinac who came steaming in like a train to fire a shot past Fabianski with the aid of a slight deflection.
Abraham then had an effort ruled out for offside before and Laurent Koscielny wasted a header from another quality Sanchez set-piece before the Gunners scored again in the 56th minute.
Kolasinac was again involved as he got in behind the Swans defence and pulled the ball back for Ramsey to steer home his third goal of the season.
Manchester United 1 Tottenham 0
Watford 0 Stoke 1
Crystal Palace 1 West Ham 2
INTERACTIVE STATS – CLICK on the categories to find out how the teams fared
INTERACTIVE LINE-UPS– CLICK on a player’s number below to see their stats
