Survival boost for Carlos Carvalhal's side as they fight back from Nacho Monreal's opener through Jordan Ayew and Clucas
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PIERRE-EMERICK AUBAMEYANG appeared at Arsenal’s London Colney training ground last night ahead of a medical today.
Assuming he was fully aware of what was going on in south Wales, the Gabon international striker could have been forgiven for hailing a cab to Luton Airport for an immediate flight back to Dortmund this morning.
Arsenal delivered yet another shocking away performance in the Premier League. It is now just three wins in 13.
Petr Cech delivered one of the most embarrassing moments in a fine career to hand Jordan Ayew the second with a monumental cock-up before the outstanding Sam Clucas grabbed his second of the game late on.
The evening took a surreal turn when with just 14 minutes left, Wenger desperate to turn the game around, unleashed Olivier Giroud, the player set to sign for Chelsea today to allow Aubameyang’s £55million transfer.
New signing from Manchester United Henrikh Mikhitaryan had already made his debut, a minute before Shkodran Mustafi delivered a nasty backpass to Cech who sliced his clearance.
Yet this latest loss away illustrated that Arsenal’s problem are not merely up front, even though they are about to sign one hell of a talent.
Equally, Giroud will still be a loss and Arsenal’s fans sung his name throughout the first half although they would not have expected the Frenchman to play considering he is about to sign for another club and curiously, a London rival.
Swansea should get real credit as they deserved the win and it is now 10 points from five games for new boss Carlos Carvalhal.
Wins over Liverpool and now Arsenal will give this team every confidence that they can escape the drop and the Liberty Stadium, a miserable place to be for the first half of the season, was once again a lively place yesterday evening.
Equally, Arsenal’s loss cannot be purely down to Cech’s horrific moment. The midfield, particularly Granit Xhaka, delivered a poor performance.
The arrivals of Aubameyang and Mikhitaryan are welcome but this team still needs some major surgery if it is to challenge again.
Equally, the fourth spot and a Champions League place is disappearing into view which makes the Europa League even more important.
Swansea were unchanged from the 1-0 win over Liverpool eight days earlier while Jack Wilshere was missing for Arsenal due to illness.
It was certainly a surprise to see Giroud on the bench but also slightly odd Lee Mason was given the game to referee just two days after taking charge of Cardiff against Manchester City.
It is not as though he was being rewarded for doing a great job along the M4.
Swansea were the better team creating most of the chances yet Arsenal opening the scoring with only their second attempt.
It came from an outstanding pass from Mesut Ozil and Nacho Monreal was completely unmarked to stick his leg out to score past Fabianski, although Kyle Naughton appeared to be fast asleep.
You would have expected an away team to keep things tight for a couple of minutes but then, this is Arsenal we are talking about.
Maybe Ozil was still thinking about his cracking pass as he switched off and lost possession when under pressure from Martin Olsson.
Mawson had plenty of time with the ball, picked out Clucas and he took one touch to steer the ball away from Laurent Koscielny before sliding the effort past Cech.
Clucas, a £16.5m arrival from Hull last summer, had scored only one other goal for Swansea was in the 2-1 loss at the Emirates and it was also from a similar type of move.
Equally, Xhaka deserved a rocket for allowing Clucas to jog past before accepting the pass and levelling.
Yet that was nothing compared to Cech’s clanger which came just a minute after Mkhitaryan was handed a debut as a replacement for Mohamed Elneny.
Although Arsenal keeper’s will rightly taking the blame, Mustafi, although under pressure from Dyer, should have dealt with the situation quicker.
He sent a backpass to Cech which skidded along the surface, the keeper failed to make a proper connection and the ball came out to Ayew who could not believe his luck. He will not score an easier goal than that all season.
With 14 minutes left, Giroud replaced Iwobi but he could not end his Arsenal career in famous fashion.
Instead, it got worse for Arsenal when Mustafi deflected the ball into the path of Clucas who swept the ball into the net.
Another shocker from Arsenal and the only good thing was that the game was not being shown live on television for Aubameyang to watch.
