Gunners rediscover some steel

Swansea City 0 Arsenal 2

Accused of the kind of mistakes that would shame schoolboys, Arsene Wenger’s back-four organised a private screening of the 2-1 defeat to Tottenham and, after a bout of soul-searching, realised where they had been going wrong. The result; successive clean sheets that have laid the foundation for victories at Bayern Munich and Swansea.

The 2-0 win in the Allianz Arena proved to be too little, too late to salvage the club’s Champions League ambitions but that, together with the resolute display at the Liberty Stadium, has restored belief at a time when their challenge to finish in the top four and once again claim a place in the Champions League looked uncertain at best.