Fine run comes to an end

Arsenal 0-1 Swansea

Arsenal’s unbeaten run came to an abrupt end on Monday night as the Gunners were defeated by a Swansea side that played without a striker for most of the match.

Gary Monk’s side set up in the ultra-defensive formation of 4-6-0, sitting deep with ten men behind the ball and enjoyed great success in frustrating the home team. Arsenal were far from their best,

particularly in the first half and struggled to create clear cut goal scoring opportunities, with their first effort on target coming after an hours play.

The problem for Wenger’s team was their lack of termpo. Against a side that is sitting back so deep, you must move the ball as quickly as possible, taking one or two touches at most, in order to move the opposition around and create the space to get in at them. Unfortunately for most of this game, the Gunners play was slow and lethargic, playing right into Swansea’s hands. With Arsenal passing the ball amongst themselves and in front of Swansea, the visitors could just sit back and defend comfortably.

On the few occasions when the Gunners did display neat combination play, they created chances but just could not take them. In the first half, a lovely piece of interchange play between Ramsey and Bellerin on the right flank, created space for a cross, which unfortunately, Giroud could only divert towards goal with the back of his head.

The Frenchman was not enjoying his best performance in an Arsenal shirt, but with Welbeck still out injured, the Gunners bench seemed rather shorn of attacking options. A low cross into the box at the start of the second half which Giroud almost got on the end of was as close as the former Montpellier man would get to opening the scoring for the home side before he was replaced by Theo Walcott.

This was a rather strange decision from Wenger as although Giroud was not playing well, he was at least occupying the Swansea central defenders with his physical presence. Walcott, with his slight build, just cannot do the same job for the team. The Englishman’s main quality is his pace, which he can only use if there is space in behind the opposition defence. Yet with Swansea sat so far back, there was absolutely no space for Walcott to run in behind and essentially the Gunners became a team that was stilted up front.

Things were made even worse when Arsenal decided to attempt crosses into the area, which Walcott was never going to win. The Englishman is clearly lacking in confidence at the moment as he attempts to regain form without being offered enough minutes on the pitch. Even when low crosses were delivered into the box, Walcott barely moved when he should have been making a run across the goalkeeper and towards the front post. When a golden opportunity to open the scoring did fall his way, following a rebound from Sanchez’s shot on goal, Walcott’s weak effort was straight at Fabianski and easily saved.

It maybe would have been more beneficial for Wenger to switch formation, given that Swansea were entrenched on the edge of their penalty area. Rather than leave one man up front, the manager could have gone with two, pairing Walcott with Giroud. This would have occupied the Swansea defence more and potentially created more space for the midfield. Also, balls could have been played up to Giroud, for the Frenchman to flick on towards Walcott.

Unfortunately when Wenger elected to change his tried and tested system, it wasn’t the required change. The manager decided to dispense with the holding midfielder Francis Coquelin and instead throw on Jack Wilshere, who in fairness did perform well but is too similar to Ramsey, Ozil and Cazorla to pose Swansea a different problem. Far too often the ball was played across the Swansea box, from one player to another with no opening being fashioned at all. With Walcott still on the bench at this stage, the manger could have put him on instead of Coquelin and deployed him on the wing. There Walcott could have used his pace to get in behind the Swansea defence and cross the ball in to Giroud.

Ultimately Wenger will look back on this game with great regret. Playing against a side that has very little intention to attack and coming away with only a point is frustrating, but to end up losing the game is terrible. As the manager stated afterwards, if you cannot win these games, it is essential that you do not throw it all away and lose them. Arsenal switched off with five minutes left and paid the price as a cross into the box caught out the entire defence and the goalkeeper. Gomis rose above Monreal to head the ball goal wards and with Ospina terribly out of position, compounding his initial error by also jumping backwards as he attempted to get across his line, the Colombian couldn’t prevent the ball from going over the line.

Arsenal had struggled to score all evening and couldn’t find an equaliser to at least salvage something from the game. As a result, second place now looks out of reach with Manchester City three points ahead and enjoying a superior goal difference. The fight to avoid fourth place and a Champions League qualifier in August is now on. Manchester United host Arsenal on Sunday and the Gunners will have to bounce back from this disappointing result to ensure they at least come back from Old Trafford with a point. A defeat would put great pressure on Arsenal’s game in hand against a Sunderland side fighting for their lives, which the Gunners would surely like to avoid. Wenger needs to rally the troops and quickly.