Woeful Arsenal booed off after latest hapless showing
It was a huge win for Swansea’s survival hopes as they came back from a Joel Campbell goal down to win with efforts from Wayne Routledge and Ashley Williams to leave them six points clear of the drop and Arsenal six points off top spot.
The North London side are still in the race mathematically but they have now squandered so many chances to dominate the league they show no signs of reversing their poor form with 10 games to go. They have now lost seven league matches this season and this, as so often before, was a match they dominated without looking like scoring enough.
Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger said: “I believe we were really unlucky with our finishing and some decisions today. They had two shots on target and two goals.
“We stopped playing before the first goal because there was a foul on Mesut Ozil. There were hands around his neck and it should have been a free-kick for us. We need to bounce-back very quickly now.”
To add to Wenger’s woes Petr Cech will miss Saturday’s clash with Tottenham after injuring his hamstring late on.
“Petr Cech is injured. I think it will keep him out of the game against Tottenham at the weekend. But I have full-confidence in David Ospina.”
The match had started so well forWenger’s men as Alexis Sanchez, playing with a spring in his step for the first time in a while, played a well-measured ball over the Swansea defence and Campbell timed his run to perfection to finish with a stunning left foot half volley on 15 minutes.
Arsenal, who had already hit the woodwork through Sanchez and seen two good Olivier Giroud efforts saved, continued to press for more goals with Mesut Ozil and Hector Bellerin firing shots at their former goalkeeping team-mate Lukasz Fabianski.
Any complacent thoughts should have been banished midway through the first half when Leroy Fer, on debut following his loan signing from QPR, whipped a right foot shot that whistled over the Arsenal cross bar from 25 yards.
But Arsenal did not heed the warning and Swansea equalised in the 32nd minute. Jack Cork took possession as Arsenal attempted to break and played in Wayne Routledge, who scored with a tidy low right foot shot from the edge of the area.
Boos rang around the Arsenal stadium, but it was not obvious whether they were aimed at their own players or the fact a former Tottenham man was milking his goal celebration.
The Swansea bench, managed by stand-in boss Alan Curtis with head coach Francesco Guideline in hospital with a reported chest problem, did not hold back in their celebrations in anticipation of a crucial strike in their battle against relegation.
And Curtis must have been worried as Arsenal roared back and Giroud almost broke the crossbar with a powerful shot following a Per Mertesacker knock down. He should have scored.
There was only one team in it, but now Swansea had a goal they were defending with extra vigour and Arsenal were in danger of getting desperate. As so often before this season, they had been the superior team without the goals to show for it.
Soon the anxious mood of the crowd began to mimic the uneasy body language of the players as Swansea tried to capitalise in the form of trademark time-wasting.
Ozil’s head did not drop, though, and he seemed to be Arsenal’s most determined player, tracking back to win the ball and trying to urge his team-mates forward. He almost laid on a goal too but Sanchez’s shot was again saved by Fabianski.
The Polish keeper was man of the match when Swansea won here last season and was up for it again. Swansea should have taken the lead through substitute Gylfi Sigurdsson, who was guilty of a poor miss.
That came just after the crowd had booed Wenger’s decision to take off Campbell for Danny Welbeck.
Sanchez then hit a 68th minute free-kick smack against the Swansea bar to mark the third time Arsenal had hit the woodwork.
Then, with 15 minutes to go, came the Swansea goal. Andre Ayew did well to win a free-kick with a theatrical leap on the edge of the area and Williams bundled it over the line after Petr Cech fumbled his attempt to cut out Sigurdsson’s cross.
Wenger sent on Walcott for Sanchez before the game could restart, but even with five minutes of time added on at the end they did not like scoring.
Cech 6; Bellerin 6, Mertesacker 6, Gabriel 5, Monreal 6; Coquelin 6, Ramsey 6; Campbell 7 (Welbeck 64, ), Ozil 8, Sanchez 7 (Walcott ; Giroud 5.
Fabianski 7; Naughton 6, Amat 6, Williams 7, Kingsley 5; Cork 6, Fer 6, Ki Sung-Yueng 5 (Sigurdsson 45, 6); Routledge 6, Ayew 5; Gomis 5.
Bobby Madley 6/10
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