Late Gomis strike sinks Gunners
JEOPARDY: AUTOMATIC EUROPEAN QUALIFICATION AT RISK
Swansea City find themselves in seventh position in the league.
Bafetimbi Gomis scored a late, technology-assisted winner as Swansea City compromised Arsenal’s quest for automatic Champions League qualification with a smash-and-grab 1- 0 away victory last night.
Arsenal had won nine of their previous 10 games, only dropping points in a goalless draw with champions Chelsea, but after being kept at bay by their former goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski, they were undone in the 85th minute.
Gomis, a 74th-minute replacement for Ki Sung-yueng, sent a header towards goal and although Arsenal goalkeeper David Ospina appeared to have clawed it away, the Goal Decision System showed that the ball had in fact crossed the line.
It was Arsenal’s first home defeat in the league since November.
United can overtake Arsenal and take possession of third place by beating them at Old Trafford on Sunday, although Arsene Wenger’s side retain a game in hand.
Garry Monk’s Swansea, meanwhile, are now a point off seventh place.
With Aaron Ramsey overcoming a knock sustained in last week’s 3-1 win at Hull City, Arsenal fielded an unchanged team for the fi fth league game running, something that last happened in January 1994.
Ramsey set up Olivier Giroud for an early header that landed on the roof of the net.
Ospina was required to saved from Angel Rangel and Jonjo Shelvey, and though willing to drop deep in search of the ball, Arsenal dangermen Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil struggled to make inroads.
With 23 minutes left, Wenger introduced Jack Wilshere in place of Francis Coquelin to add yet more guile to the hosts’ midfield and Theo Walcott followed soon after, replacing Giroud.
Still Fabianski denied his former team-mates.
Fabianski repelled efforts from Ramsey and Cazorla either side of a razor-sharp double-save that left Sanchez and Walcott with their heads in their hands.
Frustration turned to disbelief minutes later when Montero clipped a cross into the box from the Swansea left and Ospina was unable to prevent Gomis’s downward header from crossing the line. –