Pace ace Weimann quick out of blocks
LEE JOHNSON will raise a glass of Austrian Riesling to toast the parents of Andreas Weimann.
The former Aston Villa, Derby and Wolves winger has re-invented himself as a central striker under the City boss and the result has been a rapid start to the season with five goals in as many games.
Johnson, whose team deservedly inflicted a first defeat of the season on the sorry Swans, says Weimann’s speed out of the blocks comes from his parents.
Weimann scored after just
31 seconds and Johnson said: “His mum was a 400m sprinter for Austria and his dad was too. He’s got an athletic family and it’s good to see he has that speed too.
“It seems like he’s been around forever but he’s only
27 and he has a lot of his career ahead of him.
“The last time he played up front through the middle I think he scored 12 goals for Aston Villa in the Premier League.
“We are not in a market where we can spend
£15million so we have to work differently. We did it with Bobby Reid last season – finding a guy’s attributes.”
Weimann’s goal would have made would-be striker Usain Bolt jealous.
The home defence had hardly finished their stretches when the Robins’ striker dragged the ball back under his foot and across the line from Niclas Eliasson’s cross.
A youthful Swansea looked shell-shocked and they never really recovered.
For the first time this season, their meagre resources were exposed.
Oli McBurnie, their own leading scorer with three goals, looked jaded and manager Graham Potter revealed the Scot has been playing with a hairline fracture of his toe.
Swans skipper Mike van der Hoorn had a header cleared off the line by Weimann and both Bersant Celina and Matt Grimes went close but Potter knows a stinker when he sees one.
“It was one of those days when it didn’t quite happen for us,” he said.
UNAI EMERY watched Arsenal finally achieve lift-off under his leadership – and then insisted their best is yet to come.
The sloppy Gunners were in trouble when Marko Arnautovic put West Ham in front but they roared back with goals from Nacho Monreal, Danny Welbeck and an Issa Diop own-goal.
It meant they stopped the rot after back-to-back defeats and avoided losing their first three league games of a season for the first time since 1954.
But it was a messy, unconvincing performance with the Hammers, who remain without a point, threatening to add to Arnautovic’s solitary strike on several occasions.
Arsenal did not make Emery’s first three points in the Premier League safe until Welbeck struck deep into stoppage time and by then Hammers skipper and star man Arnautovic had gone off injured. Emery said: “We are happy.
“We needed to win and show our supporters a match with three points.
“But it’s clear we need to improve and not concede so many chances.
“I saw good things but also things to improve. In the first half we suffered more than we want.
“However the win gives confidence to the players.
“But in the first half, we needed calm.” Aaron Ramsey, back in the team after Mesut Ozil missed out with what Emery insisted was flu – and not because of a training-ground row – claimed Arsenal are now heading in the right direction. He said: “It’s a new process for us. “We had a tough start and are trying to improve every game.
“We are progressing every game.
It was open at times but I am glad we got a win. He wants us to press
high up the pitch.”
With both sides making a terrible start to the season it was hard to know which manager was under more pressure before kick-off.
But there was little doubt about it by the time Arnautovic fired the opener past Petr Cech.
Emery has certainly had his critics since he took over at Arsenal and there was a sense of disbelief as West Ham, who lost 4-1 here in April, took the lead.
As good as it was from Arnautovic – he picked his spot perfectly after a neat feed on the edge of the box from Felipe Anderson – it was awful from the Gunners.
From the moment that Jack Wilshere fed Anderson deep in his own half, to the moment the ball went in not a challenge was offered by a single Arsenal player.
Granit Xhaka in particular just trotted back lazily as Anderson was allowed a clear run before exchanging passes with Arnautovic.
And he beat Petr Cech a little too easily. But the Hammers are just as bad at the back as Arsenal and managed to protect their lead for all of five minutes.
Again it was Pellegrini’s bizarre tactic of trying to holding a high line which was to blame.
Liverpool had torn that apart at Anfield on the opening day.
And the first time Arsenal solved the puzzle with Henrikh Mkhitaryan slipping Hector Bellerin through to the byline, they scored.
Bellerin pulled the ball back and with Hammers defenders desperately back-pedalling, Monreal had all the time in the world to smash home the equaliser.
Arsenal old boy Lukasz Fabianski, who made a string of saves, then denied Shkodran Mustafi and Alexandre Lacazette before the Hammers suffered a blow when Arnautovic limped off.
And when young French debutant Diop launched a panicky sliced clearance high into the air and Ramsey headed back into the danger zone, they self-destructed.
Arsenal substitute Lacazette controlled it with his chest and turned to fire it home off the unlucky Diop, who could do little about it.
The Hammers did have chances to equalise but Welbeck eventually settled it with a close-range finish on the turn after more good work from Bellerin.