Trossard’s ARSENAL ACE LEADS CHARGE A top Gunn TO KEEP ARTETA MEN IN HUNT
AND then there were five.
Five more games for Arsenal to win. Five more dates with destiny in a gripping title race. Five more occasions to prove they are no chokers.
Yep, the Gunners returned to victorious ways last night, reclaimed top spot and recharged their title dreams.
Leandro Trossard’s spectacular effort fired Mikel Arteta’s men a point clear of Manchester City.
And that could be up to four by Tuesday, if they beat Chelsea on their own patch, because City do not play again until a testing trip to Brighton on Thursday. With the very real threat their season could be dead by the end of yesterday evening, this was all about Arsenal preventing such a disaster.
The Gunners have been on streaks all this season – either lengthy, virtually faultless ones or brief blips of two or three setbacks.
Which is why they wanted to bury any April hoodoo immediately and ensure a return to the summit they had suddenly abandoned six days earlier.
That was their only possible plan of attack in the Midlands – so often a graveyard region when it came to previous botched Arsenal challenges under Arsene Wenger.
Back in those dark times it used to be Birmingham and Stoke inflicting the damage. Nowadays it is mainly Aston Villa.
Avoiding carnage in the Black Country looked tricky given Wolves had already beaten City and Tottenham here. Yet those successes were before the current major injury crisis decimating the hosts’ squad, so severe that O’neil named Wes Okoduwa, just 15, on the bench and handed a debut to midfielder Tawanda Chirewa, 20.
The Gunners, with Trossard and Gabriel Jesus starting, would have got off to a flier had Kai Havertz’s hooked volley inside 60 seconds not flown straight at home keeper Jose Sa.
But while they dominated possession, there was a lack of pace or threat to Arsenal’s
opening assaults. That was summed up by a succession of lame efforts from Bukayo Saka, Declan Rice and Martin Odegaard.
It was not all total oneway traffic, though, as Chirewa underlined with a deflected effort saved comfortably by David Raya.
The breakthrough came just before the break when Jesus rolled an inviting pass to Trossard who struck a swerving side-footer into the far corner off the post.
There was some debate if the Belgium midfielder actually meant it.
The effort would not have looked out of place at the Crucible and the World Snooker Championship as the ball spun wickedly on its way into the net.
It was a vital breakthrough and one that Arsenal rarely looked like chucking away as they held out for a sixth away clean sheet in a row.
And as a cherry on top, Odegaard added Arsenal’s second deep into added time.