GUNNERS DO IT THE HARD WAY
Giroud winner papers over cracks
If he had known it was going to end successfully, arsene Wenger would probably have taken victory in this remarkable fashion. Better than a comfortable 2-0 coast at home any day. More inspiring than three points taken in the conventional fashion, certainly. here is something on which to build. a fightback, a show of strength and spirit. arsenal won with courage and gusto. They can take that to the bank.
a word of warning, though. In doing so, they also papered over more than a few, long- standing cracks. Three crosses, three goals. Wasn’t three at the back supposed to guard against that?
So there is work to be done on the training ground. In the meantime, though, here was a result to savour. In a see-saw game, arsenal were once in front, twice behind, before rallying to level and then win in the final minutes. Their revival was inspired, even if they appeared to catch a break with a Mesut Ozil handball, unnoticed, in the build-up to the third goal.
That should not be allowed to obscure the bigger picture though, which was that arsenal found a way to break down a Leicester team known for resilience, at least when it suits. Up to that point, they had absorbed pressure well, with new signing harry Maguire particularly impressive.
Yet, under pressure, Leicester’s nerve snapped. They tired, grew slack at the back, looked more like, well, arsenal. Wenger’s introduction of aaron Ramsey and Olivier Giroud as substitutes proved a master-stroke, too, both men scoring as 2-3 became 4-3. Neither goal was Bergkamp beautiful but, in their way, worth every bit as much as a work of art.
for the first — arsenal’s third — Granit Xhaka recycled a cleared ball and found Ramsey on the right, driving on and stabbing his finish past Kasper Schmeichel.
The second was a taste of Leicester’s own medicine. Ozil took a corner and Giroud got in front of Leicester’s central defence to send a quite magnificent header into the net. Since arriving in June 2012, the frenchman has scored more headers than any other player in the Premier League. from despair, the stadium became delirious. arsenal couldn’t blow it from there. Could they?
No, they couldn’t — but there is a reason the locals still doubt. earlier, alexandre Lacazette had scored the fastest opening day goal in Premier League history — and his team were trailing 2-1 less than 30 minutes later.
The previous fastest goal to start a league season was scored by faustino asprilla for Newcastle against Sheffield Wednesday in 1997. One minute and 41 seconds. Lacazette beat this by seven seconds, and on his league debut, too.
So at least there is no worry about the new striker getting off the mark. Lacazette’s goal was a typically smart, instinctive finish. hector Bellerin laid thehe ball back to Mohamed Elneny, whose cross found Leicester captain Wes Morgan with a double handful. Unable to decide which of his two men to address, Morgan was caught between the pair, allowing Lacazette to react with whip-cracking sharpness, turning a glancing header into Schmeichel’s net.
Summer holidays and a surprise friday night start to the season had left the emirates a little emptier than usual, but the noise told its own story. The first game is always the time for optimism, and here it was writ large. a goal up less than two minutes in. Positivity abounded, but did not last.
In the fifth minute, familiar chaos. Marc albrighton’s cross went deep and arsenal’s defence did not deal with it. Petr Cech came out in emergency mode but Maguire got their first and headed it back across goal. Now Cech was stranded. he needed a team-mate to come to his rescue. No chance. Shinji Okazaki outjumped Xhaka and Leicester were level. Smiles froze. head-shaking began.
arsena arsenal had good chances after that but, worryingly, whenever Leicester threatened they looked like scoring.
When danny Welbeck played a one-two with Ozil, Maguire was equal to the shot. When Welbeck rode several challenges after 26 minutes, Leicester scrambled clear. When Sead Kolasinac struck a low shot goalwards it was saved by Schmeichel. When Xhaka misplaced a pass on 30 minutes, arsenal went 2-1 down.
It was the first of the night from Jamie Vardy, a simple take that reminded arsenal what they missed when he turned them down in 2016.
arsenal’s midfield played a series of meaningless short passes that served only to put them under pressure, Xhaka cracked and gave it to albrighton on the left. he crossed to Vardy at the far post to head the ball past Cech.
an arsenal equaliser just before half-time quelled potential mutiny. Welbeck’s strength forced an attacking position again, the ball falling to Kolasinac who unselfishly slipped it inside for the england man to tap home. It shouldn’t have been this hard, but arsenal make it hard. That is their problem — and it continued after half-time.
Leicester’s third came from the oldest of textbooks. Riyad Mahrez whipped in the corner from the right, Vardy rose and met it sweetly, Cech was flat-footed on his line.
Nacho Monreal, the arsenal defender whose frantic efforts to contain Vardy had failed, beat the ground in frustration. It says much about Leicester that they took this route to goal so successfully, but much of arsenal, too. They should be better than this. They should, at least, have learned.
The determination to make it difficult continues, though, and at arsenal things are rarely as straightforward as they seem. alexis Sanchez watched from the stand, his future still uncertain. Beyond that, with the new experi-
ence of Thursday night football in the Europa League looming, few are sure what this season will bring. Did it bode well, scoring goals, showing fight to get back in the game? Or did the three conceded, and at home, merely suggest the same old problems?
What Arsenal will turn up this season? All of them, by the looks of it, and maybe all at once, too.