Gunners moving on at last
ARSENE WENGER marked the 21st anniversary of his appointment by beating his 45th different Premier League opponent – thereby creeping ahead of Sir Alex Ferguson in the Table of Victims.
An instantly forgettable game, settled either side of half-time by goals from Nacho Monreal and Alex Iwobi, will ultimately be just another page in the Frenchman’s ever-growing personal scrapbook.
However, that in itself is no bad thing: it puts the disastrous start to the campaign – and the uncertainty of last season – further into the rearview mirror.
Last time Arsenal headed in to an international break it was on the back of a humiliating 4-0 defeat by Liverpool that was already raising question marks about the wisdom of Wenger not making the FA Cup final win in May his concluding chapter.
Now, though, the Arsenal team can jet off to their various overseas commitments back in the top six with a realistic chance of competing for even more when they return.
“Our last international break was a nightmare,” said Wenger. “This one was a bit better.
“I knew that after the game in Liverpool everybody would write us off and I knew it just depends on us, how much we respond.
“Nothing is permanent. You’re not bad in a permanent way. You can do something about it. We responded in a united way and we have put some wins together and some good performances as well.”
The quality of football, particularly at home, has improved immeasurably. Within the first 60 seconds yesterday Alex Lacazette had already drilled a 25-yard shot fiercely against the post and Iwobi subsequently had a sharp shot saved.
So the 16th-minute opener was always coming, but arrived so frenetically that even with the slowest of motion replays it was hard to make out the details of what happened. Thank goodness, then, for the written word.
It all started with a foul by Jose Izquierdo on Lacazette. Granit Xhaka’s deep free-kick was headed back from beyond the far post by Lacazette to Shkodran Mustafi, whose shot was cleared off the line.
Hector Bellerin’s initial follow-up shot was also blocked but when the ball dropped on the halfvolley to Monreal, the Arsenal defender was not going to say no to his first Premier League goal since March 2013.
Three minutes before the interval, four Arsenal players broke like the Red Arrows from their own penalty area with Brighton goalkeeper Mathew Ryan doing well to somehow block the shot from Aaron Ramsey that eventually completed the manoeuvre.
Just 11 minutes after the restart, the second goal arrived with Alexis Sanchez back-heeling the ball between Gaetan Bong and Lewis Dunk for Iwobi to pick a spot in the back of the net.
Sanchez had a couple of efforts well saved by Ryan either side of a Sead Kolasinac header that was cleared off the line by Solly March.
Dunk’s last-gasp challenge on Sanchez prevented further damage and an injury-time header from substitute Olivier Giroud went narrowly wide.
It was all rather irrelevant, though, with the destination of the points already determined and Brighton manager Chris Hughton saying: “It was a spirited performance – it is always going to be difficult here.
“The only disappointment in the game is that we could have shown a little more on the ball and been a little more adventurous.”
I knew everybody would write us off