Planet Swans ArchivesThe Swans went down 3-2 after twice pulling Arsenal back to one goal as they threatened inside the first half hour to run away with the game but in the end it was a string of wasted chances at both ends that kept the goal tally in the game to just five.
Seasons are not defined for clubs like us at places like the Emirates but there is a massive pressure on the Swans to produce a result next week at home to Watford with todayรขโฌโขs defeat dumping us in the relegation zone with just four points from our eight games to date.
When you consider as well that we won the opening day fixture at Burnley this is just one point from twenty-one for the Swans, a worrying statistic in anyoneรขโฌโขs book. Maybe not a must win next week but certainly very close to it even at this stage of the season.
Bradleyรขโฌโขs first side included the recalled Neil Taylor and Federico Fernandez whilst it was the decision to start without a striker on the pitch that probably caused much of the talking points behind the game, Gylfi Sigurdsson starting the game in the รขโฌลFalse 9รขโฌย position.
A positive for me was though the decision to start with two wingers and in fairness both Routledge and Barrow gave the Arsenal defence plenty to think about as the afternoon progressed.
The Swans started well enough and Leroy Fer had wasted a great chance to open the scoring by the time the generous Swans defence allowed Theo Walcott to score twice inside just a few minutes
The first came when Jordi Amat failed to do the simple thing and clear the ball into row Z to allow Walcott to nip in and score the first whilst he was afforded the freedom of the Emirates penalty area just minutes later to double the home sides advantage.
At this point I suspect that most Swansea fans in the Emirates feared the worst but we were allowed back in the game when Sigurdsson finished superbly after a mistake in the Arsenal defence.
It opened the game up at this point and the Swans were lifted as they came back into the game and had Amat got any power on a header just before the interval we could have gone into half time level which would have been against the odds.
If the first half felt entertaining as it got closer to half time, the second half was very much end to end.
A Fernandez hesitation allowed Ozil to volley home a third for Arsenal but soon after the ever dangerous Barrow crossed for Baston to notch his first Swans goal to reduce the deficit once more to one goal.
The Swans were handed a further opportunity with 20 minutes left when Arsenal were reduced to ten men from a pretty poor challenge from Xhaka drew a straight red and the Swans were lifted.
Chances came and went for Gylfi, Baston, Amat, Fer and Fernandez but none were quite good enough to bring the Swans level whilst Walcott saw one effort go straight across goal after hitting the post before he wasted a glorious chance for his hat trick in the last minute.
It was brave from the Swans and, at times, very unlucky but we cannot hide from the fact that we have lost four games on the trot for only the second time since we entered the Premier League in 2011. As said earlier Watford next week is a massive game and one we simply have to win.
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