Arsenal got their Premier League campaign up and
running with a narrow 1-0 win over gallant Swansea at
Emirates Stadium.
Blog: Swansea's nearly men
The Gunners were in need of a response following their
8-2 humiliation at Manchester United before the international
break.
However, for long periods the Swans - coached by assistants
Colin Pascoe and Alan Curtis as manager Brendan Rodgers
missed the game following the death of his father -
more than matched Arsene Wenger's men, who included
all five deadline signings in the squad.
However, a mistake by Swansea keeper Michel Vorm, when
his roll-out had hit defender Angel Rangel, just before
half-time gifted a goal to Andrey Arshavin, which proved
enough for the Gunners' first league win.
Arsenal had started brightly, with former Cardiff youngster
Aaron Ramsey blasting over as Mikel Arteta orchestrated
midfield on his debut.
It was, though, Swansea who almost snatched a shock
lead on seven minutes.
The ball was swung in from the right and Danny Graham
got in front of new arrival Per Mertesacker, but despite
being wrong-footed Wojciech Szczesny made an acrobatic
save to claw the striker's close-range effort off the
line.
Arsenal were soon back on the offensive, and a quick
break saw Arshavin release Theo Walcott. The England
man slipped his shot under the advancing keeper, but
Vorm had got just enough on the ball to slow it down
as Steven Caulker, on loan from Tottenham, recovered
to hack clear from in front of his own net.
Swansea were forced to defend deeper and deeper as
Arsenal pressed for an opening goal.
A neat exchange between Robin van Persie and Emmanuel
Frimpong, back from suspension, opened up space at the
edge of the area, but the young midfielder dragged his
shot wide.
Swansea, though, slowly grew in confidence and looked
more comfortable on the ball, while Scott Sinclair provided
a lively outlet on the left.
On 35 minutes, full-back Neil Taylor got away down
the left and sent over a dangerous cross which flew
right through the Arsenal six-yard area.
Arsenal went ahead five minutes from the break following
a slice of good fortune.
Vorm tried a quick roll out on the right of the area,
only to hit the heels of defender Rangel which left
Arshavin to gratefully stroke the loose ball into the
empty net from a tight angle.
Swansea made a strong start to the second half, when
Walcott was cautioned for clattering into Taylor, the
England striker protesting assistant referee Simon Bennett
had missed a clear tug on him.
After 53 minutes, Laurent Koscielny followed into Stuart
Attwell's notebook after scything down the lively Sinclair
20 yards out.
The former Chelsea man took the free-kick himself and
clipped the ball against the top of crossbar.
At the other end, captain Robin van Persie, who was
in top form for Holland during the international break,
shrugged off two defenders before bursting into the
centre of the Swansea area and was unfortunate to see
his curling shot hit the outside of the right-hand post.
The Dutch forward then blasted over the bar having
been set up at the edge of the box by Ramsey.
Arsenal slowly started to build a period of sustained
pressure without really stretching the Swansea backline.
Bacary Sagna's deep cross flew through the penalty
area and just eluded van Persie at the far post.
Marouane Chamakh replaced van Persie for the closing
10 minutes and the Morocco striker almost had an instant
impact when nodding a close-range header goalwards from
Kieran Gibbs' left-wing cross.
Swansea, however, battled to the end and forced Arsenal
back into some desperate defending as they forced a
couple of corners during stoppage time as Graham blazed
over from close range.
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