Late show from sloppy Arsenal
SUB STRIKES NINE MINUTES FROM THE END
Unai Emery collected his second win as Arsenal manager thanks to a strike from Alexandre Lacazette in a 3-2 success at Cardiff yesterday. Emery’s men had threatened to surrender two more Premier League points as they twice squandered the lead.
But, despite making hard work of seeing off the promoted Welsh side, Arsenal sealed victories with Lacazette’s late strike to record only their second away Premier League win since December.
Shkodran Mustafi headed Arsenal ahead before Victor Camarasa equalised in first-half stoppage-time as Emery received another lesson in the strengths and weaknesses in his squad.
There was more of the same in the second half as Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang restored the lead before another mistake allowed Cardiff to draw level for a second time through Danny Ward.
Twice Emery’s men went ahead against the Premier League newboys and twice familiar defensive failings allowed Neil Warnock’s men back into the contest.
Yet it was ultimately an afternoon of success for Emery, who saw their persistence rewarded with Lacazette’s emphatic strike nine minutes from time.
There were other encouraging signs, too, not least the set-piece threat that brought the opener and might have led to another.
With just 12 minutes on the clock, Mustafi out-jumped everyone to power home a header from Granit Xhaka’s cross and, in the second half, only a save from the Cardiff goalkeeper Neil Etheridge prevented a carbon-copy goal.
Chief among Emery’s concerns was the continued struggles of goalkeeper Petr Cech to deal with the Spanish manager’s commitment to build from the back.
Twice in the opening eight minutes Cech made a mess of dealing with back-passes and, on the second occasion, Harry Arter fired over when he should have opened the scoring.
There were defensive headaches too which came to the fore in first half stoppage-time when Xhaka’s poor pass was intercepted, Nacho Monreal failed to execute a simple interception from Joe Bennett’s cross and Camarasa spun to find the roof of the net.
More defensive weakness on 70 minutes allowed Ward to head home unmarked off the base of the woodwork after Aubameyang had restored Arsenal’s lead six minutes earlier, bending a superb shot past Etheridge after being teed up well by Lacazette and Mesut Ozil.
But Arsenal’s superior individual ability finally won the day when substitute Lucas Torreira fed Lacazette, whose turn of pace allowed him to rifle a winner inside the near post past Etheridge. – AFP