Swansea's act of giant killing last week against Liverpool was not a one hit wonder. The Swans lifted themselves out of the bottom three of the Premier League table tonight with a hugely deserved 3-1 home victory against Arsenal.
A lot of questions will obviously be asked of Arsenal and Arsene Wenger tonight but Swansea and their new boss Carlos Carvalhal deserve more credit than they will get as they were great value for their come from behind victory.
Arsenal took the lead just after the half-hour mark with Nacho Monreal running on to a clever Mesut Ozil ball to the back post and finishing skillfully. Sam Clucas pulled once straight back a minute later to send the sides in level at halftime.
On the hour mark, Arsenal keeper had an absolute howler when he miskicked a back pass from Mustafi, he swiped at the ball only sending it about 6 yards where Jordan Ayew was waiting gladly to tap it into the net. Cech has come under a lot of criticism as of late and this performance will do nothing to silence those doubters.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan, made his first appearance since his transfer from Manchester United moments before Swansea went ahead and his night didn't get any better after that. He missed a good chance from a header and saw most of his crosses that were sent into the box met by nobody.
Nathan Dyer had an excellent chance from another Arsenal defensive mistake to put Swansea further in front but Sam Clucas capped off a man of the match performance by pouncing on a loose ball in the box to bag his second of the match and put the game out of Arsenal's reach.
Arsenal now find themselves 8 points behind Liverpool, following the Merseyside men's 3-0 win tonight in Huddersfield and their embarrassing banana skin loss to Swansea last Monday night not only go unpunished by Arsenal, but actually replicated.
Interestingly, Olivier Giroud started on the bench for Arsenal tonight and actually featured during the second half despite rumours today that a bid had been accepted for him to complete a transfer to the Gunners London rivals, Chelsea. As if losing a second player in the January transfer window to such a close rival, the £18 million reported asking price is perhaps rubbing salt in the wound, especially considering the prices being paid for players at the moment.
The Frenchman looked like he went over to the Arsenal away fans to say "goodbye" after the game. The footage was obviously posted online straight away.
Giroud heads over to the Arsenal fans at full-time - It certainly looked like a goodbye. pic.twitter.com/06KUVQ92BE
— Charles Watts (@charles_watts) January 30, 2018
With Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang incoming, Arsenal's Champions League eggs may now all be in their Europa League basket.
Social Media reacted accordingly to the result.
See what happens @piersmorgan when you give Trump an Arsenal shirt?
— Gary Lineker 💙💛 (@GaryLineker) January 30, 2018
I would genuinely rather have Donald Trump as Arsenal manager. pic.twitter.com/c8pixGGsOf
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) January 30, 2018
The people's coach 😂😂😂😂
FT Swansea 3 - 1 Arsenal pic.twitter.com/fk7GztfFiA— Maina Kageni (@ItsMainaKageni) January 30, 2018
No more Ox, Coq, Walcott or Sanchez. Arsenal fans who will rather blame their losses on them than on the manager, who are you blaming now?
— Deji Faremi (@deejayfaremi) January 30, 2018
A league win over Liverpool last week, another today against Arsenal.
Not bad, Swansea, not bad 👏
Report: https://t.co/AseQlzzYh8 pic.twitter.com/YZAiZm8XHS— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) January 30, 2018
Liverpool: Only we could lose to Swansea who are in the relegation zone & struggling to beat anyone.
Arsenal: Hold my beer lads.— - (@AnfieldRd96) January 30, 2018
#Arsenal away form (all comps):
Swansea (PL) ❌
Bournemouth (PL) ❌
Chelsea (LEC) ➖
Nott’m Forest (FAC) ❌
WBA (PL) ➖
C Palace (PL) ✅
West Ham (PL) ➖
So’ton (PL) ➖
Burnley (PL) ✅
Cologne (EL) ❌
Man City (PL) ❌ pic.twitter.com/fdEMdrbV2Q— FourFourTwo (@FourFourTwo) January 30, 2018
