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MOTD- Swansea City 0-2 Arsenal

By on March 16, 2013

Arsenal achieved a valuable win against Swansea City in the Premier League, keeping Champions League qualification in their sight.   The match started evenly with both sides maintaining possession well, and Arsenal almost going up in the fifth minute through Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.  The Arsenal youngster took the ball down the left flank, ran past a Swansea defender just inside the Swansea box, and curled a shot from eight yards out.  The shot beat Swansea goalkeeper Michel Vorm, clipped off the top crossbar and bounced out.  Swansea started to pressure Arsenal, and kept possession inside their own half.  They almost got rewarded for their possession in the thirteenth minute when Ki Sung-Yueng played a perfect through ball to Angel Rangel to put Rangel in on goal, but the Spaniard horribly sliced his shot wide.

In the seventeenth minute Swansea again almost got on the scoreboard when Jonathan De Guzman cut out a Carl Jenkinson pass right outside the Arsenal box.  De Guzman played the ball to Michu on the left side of the Arsenal box, and the Spaniard turned and fired a curling shot to the far post that went inches wide.  Arsenal started to get themselves back into the game, but had to wait until the fortieth minute to get another good chance, and when Santi Cazorla laid the ball off to Oxlade-Chamberlain twenty-five yards out form the Swansea goal, the Englishman hit a dipping shot that skimmed of the crossbar and bounced wide.  Swansea still looked slightly the better side though, and when Ashley Williams played a through ball for Michu in the closing seconds of the half, Michu was called just offside when he would have been in on goal.  After two minutes of added time, the first half ended 0-0 with the match still open for the taking.

Arsenal started the second half strongly and quickly managed to give Abou Diaby space for a shot twenty-five yards out from goal, but the Frenchman pulled his shot over the bar.  Arsenal kept up their strong start, and in the fiftieth minute Giroud played the ball to Cazorla right outside the Swansea box, and the little Spaniard’s dipping shot forced Vorm to make a good save to his right.  Swansea started to get themselves back into the game, and were in full control of the match by the fifty-fifth minute.

Pablo Hernandez almost put Swansea in front in the sixtieth minute when a De Guzman cross found him at the front post, and Hernandez’s right footed shot forced Arsenal goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski to produce his first save of the match.  With Arsenal needing a boost, Arsene Wenger (the Arsenal manager) brought on Gervinho for Oxlade-Chamberlain, and Gervinho his presence in the match made an immediate impact on the match when Santi Cazorla started a storming run twenty-five yards out from goal.  Cazorla took the ball to the left side of the Swansea box and hit a low cross that Giroud took for himself when letting it roll to Aaron Ramsey at the back post seemed a much better option.  The chance looked over, but instead of shooting Giroud laid the ball to Nacho Monreal on the edge of the box, and the Spaniard cut the ball on to his left foot and drove a low shot that snuck into the left side of the net to put Arsenal up in the seventy-fourth minute.

Swansea tried to get an equalizer, but Arsenal kept strong and managed to seal the three points in the first minute of stoppage time when Mikel Arteta played Ramsey into space on the left on a counter-attack, and Ramsey put Gervinho in on goal with a through ball.  Gervinho took the ball into the Swansea box, and despite having a reputation of missing good chances, coolly slotted the ball past Vorm and into the back of the net from the edge of the box.  After the three minutes of injury time, the match ended 2-0 with Arsenal climbing into fifth place with the win.
Man of the Match: Gervinho

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.