Arsene Wenger resisted the temptation to rotate the team, and with Ozil back from his illness Wenger fielded Arsenal’s very best team, in fact the same one that destroyed Tottenham a week and a half ago, and they looked lively straight from the start. Within three minutes Aaron Ramsey did a beautiful little flick just outside Huddersfield’s area and left Alexandre Lacazette with just the goalkeeper to go round and slot the ball in for an instant 1-0 lead. A great start indeed….
Arsenal looked very comfortable but maybe a little too relaxed, and Huddersfield made quite a few good runs into our box and nearly scored when an excellent freekick gave one of their strikers a free header in the box after 20 minutes but luckily he met it all wrong and it flew over the bar.
Arsenal soon got their rhythm back though and Lacazette came close to getting the ball in the box a couple of times although he looked a little sore from an early challenge. With a quarter of the game gone the stats showed us that Arsenal had 76%of the possession, which just shows our dominance.
on the half hour mark, Lacazette nearly made it 2 with a fantastic spinning chip after another pass from Ramsey but it was cleared off the line, then Bellerin got in a lovely position to get a cross in but somehow blasted it over the bar. Huddersfield suddenly got some fight though and helped by some pantomine defending by the Gunners they were starting to look dangerous again and had a couple of chances inside our box, and even had a 50/50 penalty claim. The commentators were saying words like ‘complacent’!
And Arsenal really are looking sloppy. Xhaka’s text book blast from outside the box was embarrassingly wide and Huddersfield must have been feeling a little more confident before the break. Arsenal need to realise that a single early goal does not guarantee the three points, and I’m sure Wenger will have made that clear in the dressing room at half-time….
Second half arrived and Lacazette, who looked like he took a knock early on, was replaced by Giroud and will hopefully be okay for United on Saturday. Straight away Arsenal flew out of the blocks and Ozil really should have scored but looked a little slow to shoot.
Huddersfield seemed to have flooded the defence but when given some space they were all over Arsenal and came close again to an equaliser. This game is not as cut and dried as we thought, despite Wenger playing his best side, and Arsenal were just saved again by Petr Cech.
Arsenal were on the ropes and when Sanchez went down with what looked like a self-induced injury, Wenger was looking decidedly worried. But the Gunners rallied again and Ramsey was again the provider for Giroud (who was actually offside) but he went past the keeper and blasted it against the post. It would have been unfair if he’d scored to be fair…
But Arsenal asserted their game again and it looked nearly inevitable when Giroud was given loads of space to slot the ball past Fabianski, and within a minute Alexis had made it three and Huddersfield had fough the good fight but ultimately failed in yet another away game.
Now Arsenal’s fitness told and they were irrestistible, and Ozil added to his two assists by making it 4-0, and Wenger responded by bringing on Wilshere and Welbeck to cheers around the stadium.
Arsenal were flowing and Kolasinac had a dream chance for one of his screamers but lost the ball in his own feet, but the Gunners were totally comfortable and even Xhaka had a poke from outside the box.
Ozil and Ramsey will be contending for MOTM and Giroud came of the bench to score a crucial goal again and the 5th late on with the ball bouncing in the box. An excellent performance to make it 12 home wins in a row, and we now must make it 13 on Saturday. Huddersfield were spirited in the first half, but class told in the end….
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