L AUGUST 13

Substitutes Aaron Ramsey and Olivier Giroud scored as Arsenal twice came from behind to beat Leicester City 4-3 on Friday in a dizzily entertaining opening Premier League game.

Record signing Alexandre Lacazette put Arsenal ahead after only 85 seconds at the Emirates Stadium, before a Shinji Okazaki header and a Jamie Vardy brace saw 2016 champions Leicester go 2-1 and then 3-2 up.

But Arsene Wenger’s double change turned the game, FA Cup final hero Ramsey drilling in an 83rd-minute equaliser and Giroud notching the winner two minutes later with a header that hit the bar and bounced over the line.

The Ramsey-Giroud rescue act spared Arsenal from a fourth season-opening defeat in five campaigns and enabled Wenger to start the season with victory for only the second time in eight years.

The Arsenal manager faced open dissent from fans last season as his side missed out on a place in the Champions League for the first time in 20 years.

But after winning a record seventh FA Cup with victory over Chelsea, he penned a new two-year contract and his side’s Houdini act against Leicester means that late-season momentum remains intact, albeit only just. The fans at the Emirates were getting their first glimpse of Lacazette in a competitive game and the £46.5 million ($60.3 million, 51.1 million euros) man needed less than two minutes to find the net.

From Hector Bellerin’s lay-off,