By Ricky Butler at the Emirates
Two goals in the final two minutes from leading scorer Miguel Michu gave Swansea a shock win at The Emirates on Saturday.
The Spaniard twice capitalised on Arsenal defensive errors in the closing stages to pile more pressure on beleaguered Gunners boss Arsene Wenger.
In contrast, Michael Laudrup's men should have been in front long before the end. Carl Jenkinson did well to block an early effort from Ashley Williams while Angel Rangel was twice kept at bay by Wojciech Szczesny before the break.
Nathan Dyer then broke from half way and would surely have opened the scoring had it not been for a great last-ditch challenge from Thomas Vermaelen.
Arsenal created very little in a first half display lacking any fluency. Jack Wilshere showed his frustration by berating Gervinho and Lukas Podolski for a lack of movement in front of him and the nearest they came to a breakthrough was a Santi Cazorla header which landed safely in the arms of Swans goalkeeper Gerhard Tremmel.
Twice Cazorla fired straight at Tremmell while the Spaniard then claimed a penalty after he appeared to be brought down by fellow countryman Chico Flores, but referee Mark Clatenberg was unimpressed.
Wenger threw on Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Oliver Giroud and Tomas Rosicky - his first appearance of an injury hit season - for Gervinho, Podolski and Wilshere but it was the Swans who continued to create the better chances.
Szczesny saved well again from Rangel and substitute Dwight Tiendalli before Michu struck two minutes from time.
Vermaelen and Per Mertersacker were both attracted to Luke Moore leaving Michu with a clean run on goal which he never looked like missing.
With the Emirates still in shock, the Spaniard then capitalised on a mistake by the otherwise impressive Jenkinson in stoppage time to seal a famous Swansea victory - his 10th Premier League goal of the season.
"It was not a good performance," said Wenger at the final whistle. "I felt Swansea deserved to win. We were very jaded physically after two tough away games and today we were not at the races at all.
"We were guilty at 0-0 with two minutes to go. When you can't win it is important not to lose. We were not cautious enough defensively to keep a 0-0," he continued.
"We tried very hard in the second half to get into the game but we were not sharp enough to create many openings.
"We need to get the balance right in our offensive game. We had many attacking players on the pitch but we didn't create enough chances and we will work on that.
"The fans are right to boo. You cannot be happy when you don't win the games. We need to win our home matches but what we produced today was not convincing enough to keep our fans happy."
Swans manager Laudrup was delighted with his side's performance. He said: "It is a fantastic result and a great performance. It was easy to be motivated against one of the big teams.
"We have had a very good week with seven points from three games. It has been absolutely outstanding.
"We could play with no pressure. All the pressure was on Arsenal because they needed to win today.
"I felt we played very well. We created five or six big chances but when we did not take them I felt Arsenal would maybe get the winning goal. Fortunately it did not go like that and we scored two good goals.
"Michu is a great finisher and a great worker but in this team right now everyone is playing at a very high level which is great to see."
ARSENAL - Szczesny 8, Jenkinson 7, Mertersaker 6, Vermaelen 5, Gibbs 5, Arteta 6, Wilshere 5 (Rosicky), Cazorla 7, Walcott 6, Gervinho 4 (Oxlade-Chamberlain 6), Podolski 5 (Giroud 5).
SWANSEA CITY - Tremmell 6, Rangel 7, Yeoung 7, Chico 6, Davies 7, De Guzman 8(Tiendalli 6), Britton 7, Shechter 6 (Moore 6), Williams 7, Dyer 8, Michu 9.
REFEREE; M. Clatenburg
STAR MAN; Michu (Swansea) - Two superb late finishes capped a fine all-round display.
ATTENDANCE; 60,098
No comments:
Post a Comment