Ten out of ten for glorious Gunners
Arsenal 3 Leicester 1
Arsenal made it the perfect 10 out of 10 tonight with a victory over Leicester City at the Emirates.
The feeling around the Emirates is as good as it ever has been at this ground and the Gunners followed up their 5-1 rout of Fulham before the international break with a hard-fought comeback win against the Champions of three years ago.
Mesut Ozil was outstanding tonight – in fact he played arguably one of his best games in an Arsenal shirt, the responsibility of captaincy bringing the best out in him.
The football the Gunners played tonight was as good as they have played in recent years – it was a joy to watch, and Ozil and the rejuvenated Alex Iwobi were at the heart of most of it.
The importance of Ozil’s goal just before half-time cannot be underestimated. His clinical finish from Hector Bellerin’s right-wing cross set the tone for the second half when the Gunners blew the Foxes away.
Two more goals from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang wrapped up the points, sending the Gunners up into fourth place.
Leicester started the game the better of the two sides and took a deserved lead when Ben Chilwell’s shot deflected off Bellerin and into the back of the net.
Soon after they had a shout for a penalty which could have put them further ahead but the referee waved away their claims for handball against Rob Holding.
As the pundits keep revelling in reminding us, the defence is still the Gunners’ weakness – and the fact that the team have been a little slow out of the blocks of late is a worry.
But what is pleasing is the spirit and determination the side are showing to stay in games. Arsenal have been level at half-time in each of the past seven games – and have gone on to win them all.
After the game Hector Bellerin said: “We have people like Mesut, like Lacazette up front. It’s easy with them to score the goals we do.
“We know that if we play the football we can we have the chances. We worked hard on our fitness in the summer and that has shown with how well we are playing later in games.”
Next up for the Gunners is a trip to Portugal and a game against Sporting Lisbon on Thursday in the Europa League before Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park in the league on Sunday.
The next big test, however, will be Liverpool at the Emirates on November 3. Win that and things really will begin to get exciting.
