After finally opening up their wallets at the end of the summer transfer window, Arsenal came into this match hoping some of the new signings would contribute. Three points were desperately needed to get their season on track.
Swansea has been a hard working team all season, and they'd had pretty good defense and goalkeeping form so far. Their problem has been that they cannot score goals. At all. If they failed to score at the Emirates, they would go through their first 4 EPL games without tallying a goal.
Arsenal started the game really well, controlling possession and getting all the chances. Arteta had some great passing and was really looking to make things happen. Not a Cesc Fabregas performance, but pretty good. In the very first minute he fired a through ball in to Ramsey, but the Welsh Captain put his shot wide of the target. Theo Walcott had a couple of great chances too. He had one shot saved in the 9th minute then nearly opened the scoring in the 15th. After taking a nice pass from Arshavin he beat the 'keeper only to have his shot cleared off the line at the last second by Caulker.
Ultimately it was poor goal keeping that was the Swans' undoing today. In the 40th minute their 'keeper, Michel Vorm, took a ball in the 18 and rolled it right at one of his defenders, who unfortunately wasn't expecting it. The ball bounced off and rolled to Arshavin who slotted it in from a weird angle to make it 1-0 to the Gunners.
Swansea really responded after half time. In fact, despite a couple of chances from Robin Van Persie, they looked the better side. Unfortunately, they just could not get it done in the final third at all. They came closest off of a free kick by Sinclair in the 54th minute that rattled the cross bar, but that was the sum of it and Arsenal took their first EPL win of the season 1-0.
It wasn't really an inspiring performance by the Gunners, but hey, 3 points is three points, and they really needed them. Hopefully for their supporters, they can take the win and use it to build on further for their new side.
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