Swansea v Arsenal review – Cool Campbell caps hard fought win

Before this Arsenal away game at Swansea City, Arsene Wenger spoke about how our recent poor results against Garry Monk’s team have been caused in the latter stages of the game, so he urged his players to keep focused and working hard right until the end of the match.

Maybe that is why the Arsenal players were a little more cautious than we have been used to seeing. Perhaps they had to be like that because the home team was playing well, enjoying plenty of the ball and creating some good chances down both flanks.

Bellerin was struggling to cope with their flying winger Montero, even though Joel Campbell was working hard to track back and help him. Monreal had some dicey moments on the other side as well and Gomis was causing Mertesacker and Koscielny big problems with his pace and power.

The Swansea striker really should have scored in the 22nd minute after a mistake by Mertesacker let him through on goal, but Cech stood up well to delay his shot and Bellerin raced back to clear the ball off his toe. At the other end, Campbell had fired just wide after a decent knock down from Giroud, but the Frenchman had an even better chance from an Ozil set up and his miss was a bad one.

Arsenal were just looking a little ragged before the break and I’m sure that Wenger was glad to get them into the dressing room. Giroud had suffered a worrying knock before halftime so it was a relief to see our centre forward come back out for the restart.

That relief turned to joy a few minutes later when some good work on the left by Ozil and Cazorla found Koscielny in the box and then Ozil got a chance to place a peach of a bvall into the box. Giroud lost his marker and powered a header past Fabianski to give Arsenal the lead.

Swansea responded well though and Cech was forced to make three saves in the space of a minute or so. We would have to stay solid and also try to hit them again on the counter and in the 59th minute we were denied a great chance to do just that when Shelvey slipped, Alexis picked up the ball and set off only for the referee to give an awful free kick decision.

Kevin Friend had also been very lenient on Swansea for persistent and professional fouls, so he must have been taking advice from Mike Dean. The Gunners were sitting back too much for my liking and allowing the home side to build up a head of steam. Alexis had a good chance from an Ozil corner but could not keep his header down.

The Chilean then somehow managed to head another good chance away from the goal but it did not matter because a minute later Koscielny was on hand to tap in a second after a mistake by Fabianski. I thought the ref would blow for a fould but the Arsenal defender was just standing his ground.

We made the most of that bit of luck and punished an already more subdued Swansea with a third and it was the player on his first Premier League start, Joel Campbell, who slotted a cool finish with an assist from Ozil. THat capped a very good game for the young forward and is great news for Arsenal with our injury concerns.

From then on Arsenal were well in control so I do not see why Wenger did not take off the likes of Giroud, Ozil and Alexis until the final minutes. But the Gunners march on in the EPL race and only a last minute Toure penalty gave Man City the win to stay level with us.

Tags Campbell Giroud Koscielny

64 Comments

    1. Guess who is ASSIST LEADER??________no wonder he’s the king of assists. 9 in 10 games.
      Guess who is on fire??_______the frenchman (best ball header in the league).
      Guess who is more matured than his age??______best R.B in the league in person of Spanish young man.
      Guess who is happy right now??_______Joel campbell.. He might do a Bellerin or a Le Coq who knows??
      Guess who is the boss??__________he’s french commander clue: NOT wenger.
      Guess who got his touches back??_________AW.
      #COYG Bayern we are coming again.

    1. Disclaimer:

      In NO way is soopa promiting the cooking and eating of swans.

      Wait a sec….delicious an nutritious….thats the cheerios slogan!!

      COYG!!!

  1. Good scrap fellas. But we have to start off better…Well done Joel. Hector B “Man Of The Match”

  2. Listen Baby Please

    Excellent day at the office

    When Norwich equalised, I was really excited but alas it wasn’t meant to be this weekend

    Anyway, winning is all that matters
    We got an away win and Revenge

    1. We broke the curse.
      We beat our bogey team

      Bloody hell this year is startin to feel different to previous ones

  3. Always liked Campbell, where are all the haters now? The boy is magic, just give him a run of 4 or 5 games and i’m not sure OX will get his place back.

  4. My elder sister gave birth to a baby girl last night….Eva’s curse on Mourinho and chelsea continues and Mourinho has nothing to say….Arsenal won comfortably after losing their last 3games against Swansea. To cap it off, CAMPBELL scoressssssssss. I’m a Happy Fan!

  5. Play of the day:

    Bellerin cleared a ball off the line and he hit the post, eventho the play was offside. Classy!

  6. Fantastic!…I guess at this point I can’t help but believe a little more but I still have to be very guarded when I say that.
    Very strange game especially in the first half and a little bit frustrating at times seeing how we didn’t maximize our counter-attacking positions in the game. We could have scored more with a little bit more decisiveness.
    But what can I say…Good game and good switching gears in the second half.

      1. What party? Sorry but I don’t want to join your party of unrealistic undying optimism/blind belief if that’s what you mean. I will never so don’t bother sending an invitation…lol. I am realistic.
        If the team plays well enough and consistently to instil a little bit of belief then I will have a little bit of belief. But we have to be cautious because 2013/2014 and 2007/2008 is still very fresh in my head. I have to say though that the team looks more stable than the 2013/2014 team. That is what having the likes of Alexis Sanchez gives you and not overplaying certain players.
        The best thing Wenger did this season was give Theo Walcott the main starter for the CF. The team benefited from that richly for the past two months. The attack finally had potency and was more threatening and mobile. Even in the Bayern game, Walcott did not score but he caused them a lot of problems. Wenger should not stray from this is my advice. When Walcott is fit and can play, he should always start because look who now is benefiting from good form out of being a super sub. I always said this but people mistook it for something else. Some players are not meant to be starters for Arsenal FC but can be good fillers from time to time. That is just football.

        1. Haha, didn’t expect such a block of text! Hope i didn’t hurt your feelings 😀 we can agree to disagree on some stuff, but we’re completely on the same page regarding stability, sanchez and walcott. Sanchez makes a world of a difference, and even though we’re not one man team (as we could see today, he had a one off and team pulled one for him) he is a constant performer. As about walcott, he is one classy operator and was a catalyst for the team in many ways.

  7. ozil man of match, his new form is crazy, 9 assist not even half season, he can break epl record, next bayern, lets do this

    1. Ridiculous performance. He has eyes in the back of his head. Its like he is playing in his garden he makes it look that easy. He has my vote for MOTM without any hesistation

  8. Vert small sample size but I was very impressed with Campbell today and truly believe it is his time to get a run of games. The more opportunities to play with world class talent like Santi, Ozil and Sanchez will imho only see the lads game progress and hopefully replicate his international performaces of the past few years.

    We know what we have in OX and Ramsey, and honestly I think Joels ceiling his higher than both.

    Let him play Wenger

  9. Excellent win. Our squad are working as a unit CONSISTENTLY and the clean sheets and consecutive wins are proof. WELL DONE WENGER, keep your critics eating their words!

  10. Campbell….took his chance
    Bellerin….easily the best arsenal player right now….just look at those saves!
    Ozil…..9 assist….won’t say more…

    1. I think its 8. They’re not counting the Campbell goal because it hits a Swansea player first. I might be wrong 🙂

    1. Who would have imagined they would be this horrible? I actually pegged them for a win today against Liverpool or at least not to lose. But this is surely it for Chelsea. They are officially in a crisis.

      I wouldn’t rule them out of 4th place yet. That is the most they can do however because the title is definitely beyond them. It would also be the most foolish decision to sack Mourinho if they are planning that.

      1. Why do v care whether Chelsea sacks him or not..!!!! But I feel very happy looking at him. His ego has reached its limits. It’s called karma!!

  11. PROMO! PROMO!! PROM!!

    Play Chelsea and gets 3points!

    Play Gunners and lose 3 points.

    Promo last till Maureen is sack!

    Hurry and grab urs NOWWWWWWWW!!

  12. Hands up Mesut! You are an absolute joy to watch! One of the most gifted footballer I’ve ever watched!….no pace, no strength or physicality, just pure skills and movements…..phenominal!

  13. I dont understand why are Man city are having plethora of home games and arsenal having to play away matches to tougher opposition. Well its your worry if you are going to away matches to smaller opposition fired up for relegation battle, I mean the way in which Norwich played they will surely give the citizens tough problems.

  14. Weekends Taking points
    1. Louis van Goat drop points
    2. Specialist in failure drop points
    3. Sir, Dr. Professor Wenger pick points
    4. 325 minutes without a goal: Rooney
    5. Campbell best RW
    6. Ozil world best

    1. Same here. I thought it was his legs that hit the woodwork but was more relieved when I saw it was his belly/abdomens…lol, not like that isn’t painful also. But I would rather take a hit like that around the belly/abdominal area.

    1. Campbel is gold! i’ve been saying it for ages and with all the assist kings we have in this club he’ll get plenty of goals until ramsay comes back of course lol wenger loves his boy ramsay.

    2. “It’s now or never for him”

      Now….goal scored and quality shift put in

      Never…..Ox replacing him on the wings.

      Play the kid Wenger and keep your but buddy Ramsey and the goalless wonder Ox on the bench.

      Still would love Krychowiak and possibly another attacking player in the January window

  15. Cech should also get a fair share of appreciation he did very well today along with the others of course .Giroud header was awesome

  16. That was the best response after sluggish first half . Bellerin will be the best right back in Europe. Mesut is world class and he will break Henry’s assist record. Campbell will be the next star if he continues to play like this. But we still missed Gabriel “the fighter “. Now we just need injured players back for busy Christmas schedule. And who knows title will be ours.

  17. I’m overly impressed with the team’s response to that 1st half lackluster display. Talking about our debutant, he surpassed my expectation and he capped it off with a well-taken goal. I won’t be surprise if he continues like this. Ozil was simply unplayable in the 2nd half. Bellerin was simply awesome! He tracked back on a couple of occasions to save our a*s……. Finally, the whole team played much better in the 2nd half. #Coyg!

  18. You could see clearly Joel was more focused on not losing the ball and playing defensively in the first half. He will do good, the goal will give him more confidence to move forward with the ball, sometimes he runs so slowly going forward maybe he needs to work on that. Defensively when he lost the ball he was quicker to get it back.

    I think it was a decent game from him and he should start vs Bayern.

  19. so happy for campbell……

    didn’t knew rambo lent his engine to ozil…. what a shift he is putting these days

    with monreal-boss-gabriel-ballerin and sanchez-walcott-wellbeck we might be having the world’s fastest attack and defense in one team with the world’s best assist provider sandwiched in between them = happy gooner

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