Arsenal limped over the line to win their final match under the guidance of Arsene Wenger today, with Huddersfield refusing to roll over despite having little to play for.
The Gunners started the game poorly with the hosts giving everything they could to retain the ball chasing everything and giving us little room manoeuvre. Despite a top effort by the Terriers, who earned their Premier League status in midweek by denying last season’s champions Chelsea a win, they found themselves behind.
Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang combined in the opposition box once again to add to their new flourishing partnership, with the Frenchman cutting the ball across to the box to his poaching attacker.
There wasn’t much else to talk about in the opening half really, apart from a couple of solo efforts from Henrikh Mkhitaryan, and of course the applause all around the stadium in the 22nd minute for Arsene Wenger’s extended spell in charge of the club, but the result was also a gift in itself.
The second-half wasn’t much different to the first, with the hosts continuing to play impressively, but they couldn’t manage to get the ball over the line. They did look like they had scraped a point in the dying minutes of the match only for David Ospina to hold the ball on the line, and I partially feel like they would have deserved the point for their performance.
On watching the game you would have to consider ourselves lucky to have walked away with all three points, and had the result had meant anything for us I feel that the points wouldn’t have all gone our way, but we can now celebrate the good times spent following the illustrious Frenchman, and it is time to pay our respects.
Is this the end of long-term managerial roles? What was Wenger’s greatest tactical masterclass?
Pat J