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Hello and welcome to today’s liveblog, the teams are in.
Swansea City: Fabianski; Rangel, Bartley, Williams, Taylor; Ki, Carroll, Sigurdsson; Emnes, Montero, Bony.
Arsenal: Szczesny, Chambers, Mertesacker, Monreal, Gibbs, Flamini, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Ramsey, Alexis, Cazorla, Welbeck.
Arsene Wenger has decided not to bring Theo Walcott back into the starting 11 just yet after the winger returned from injury just last week. Arsenal fans, would you like to have seen Walcott start today?
Good news for Gunners fans is that Danny Welbeck has a very impressive record against Swansea City: he’s scored in all three of the appearances he’s made against them in his career so far.
Elsewhere in the Premier League Newcastle United have won yet again, beating West Brom 2-0 at the Hawthorns.
Alan Pardew seems to be quite popular now. How fickle football fans really are…
If you fancy a flutter on today’s match Swansea are 11/4, the draw is 12/5 and Arsenal are 21/20.
The final two results from today’s early games are in. Sunderland drew 1-1 with Everton while Stoke City ran out 2-1 winners over Tottenham at White Hart Lane.
Irish international Jonathan Walters netted Stoke’s second goal. Have a look at it here.
The Anderlecht players seemed to be enjoying reading The Sun in the airport after their draw with Arsenal during the week.
Look at them there, reading away about themselves.
We’re just 15 minutes from kick-off now. Any for making predictions?
Then, whoever correctly predicts the score will win a prize of absolutely nothing at the end of the game. Go on, it’ll be great fun altogether.
Here’s a picture of Arsene Wenger arriving at the Liberty Stadium earlier. Will he don his new, specially-designed-zip-system jacket today?
The teams are out on the pitch and we’re nearly ready to go. Can Arsenal bounce back after their midweek collapse against Anderlecht?
The game has kicked off in Wales, here we go…
And, I can confirm that Arsene Wenger is wearing his specially designed coat.
We have a bit of a delay here as Ashley Williams is treated by the Swansea physios. Seemed to jar his ankle when stretching for the ball.
Wenger even posed for a selfie with a ball boy before kick off.
Swansea with the first chance of the game. A dangerous cross into the box forces Calum Chambers to knock it out for a corners at the back post.
The resulting set piece is cleared by Arsenal.
It’s been a slow enough start to the game with Arsenal dominating possession, as expected. No chances created as of yet though.
A nicely worked Arsenal move sees Cazorla set up Gibbs on the left of the box. The full-backs low cross is flicked wide by Sanchez however.
Swansea have looked dangerous at time. Marvin Emnes has just put an excellent cross into the six yard box but nobody attacked it, allowing Chambers to clear.
Finally, something exciting! First a cross from Emnes was controlled by Wilfried Bony in the box. Chambers looked to barge into the back of Bony as he controlled it, prompting the Swansea man to go down but Phil Dowd emphatically waved away penalty claims.
Then Jefferson Montero, who’s looked the most dangerous for Swansea so far went down the left and fired a shot at goal but it was well saved by Szczesny at his near post.
Another chance for Swansea and again coming down the left wing. Neil Taylor’s low cross went all the way across the box finding Angel Rangel 18 yards out but his powerful effort was blocked in the six yard box.
That was a clear foul on bony. Chambers went in with two arms pushing.
TheScore.ie reader Graham Kavanagh thinks that Swansea should have had a penalty for the push on Bony. It did look like a foul on first glance alright.
A foul on Cazorla is let go by Phil Dowd allowing the ball to break to Oxlade-Chamberlain, his shot is blocked before Chambers’ follow-up also finds a Swansea defender.
Bony tries to run through two Arsenal defenders with the ball (something I wouldn’t doubt he could do) but fails. The ball breaks back to Rangel but his shot is blocked by Mertesacker.
We’ve just had the first booking of the game. Taylor is turned well by Oxlade-Chamberlain and cynically brings him down.
You’d have to say that Swansea have been the better team so far. Probably should have had a penalty, they’ve had the best chance of the game and Montero is continually scaring the life out of Chambers at left back.
Oxlade-Chamberlain draws the second yellow card of the game, this time from Ki who came crashing in with a slide tackle sending the Arsenal winger flying.
A beautifully crafted classic Arsenal move almost sees the deadlock broken. Welbeck picked up the ball on the edge of the box and played an intricate one-two with Oxlade Chamberlain allowing the striker to go through on goal but his shot was saved by Fabianski.
Arsenal are enjoying a good spell these last few minutes. Aaron Ramsey just flashed a volley wide of the target from long range.
After almost putting the visitors into the lead Ramsey has picked up a yellow card.
HALF TIME: SWANSEA CITY 0-0 ARSENAL
So, half-time and, being honest, it’s been a fairly dull contest so far.
Swansea started the game well and looked to better side for much of the first half. Garry Monk can probably feel hard done by that they weren’t awarded a foul for the push on Bony as well.
Coming towards the end of the half however Arsenal came into the game a lot more and created the best chance so far but Welbeck’s effort was well saved by Fabianski.
It should be an interesting second half as Arsenal will have to go for the three points at some stage.
Oliver Holt on Twitter beautifully sums up the first half as “a feast of the banal”. He’s not wrong.
After looking back on the Bony incident I’m changing my “probably feel hard done by” to “definitely feel hard done by” to sum up Garry Monk’s emotions. Without a doubt it was a stone-wall penalty.
That coat…
The game is back underway.
Immediately Arsenal are on the front foot. Sanchez dispossessed Ki on the half way line and played Oxlade-Chamberlain through but failed to get the ball out from under his feet and his tame effort is easily saved.
Ashley Williams has injured himself while tackling Sanchez. Phil Dowd is nicely waiting for him to stand up before brandishing a yellow card.
Torrential overnight rain in south Wales is causing havoc on the pitch with the lines becoming indistinguishable at times. The groundsman was even out at half-time remarking parts.
We’ve just had yet another booking. This time Mertesacker was, surprisingly, beaten for pace and hacked down Emnes earning him a flash of Phil Dowd’s yellowest of cards.
It looked like the game might be livening up for a time there but…no, it wasn’t. We’re back to a feast of banality.
It’s started raining again, just in case you have a strange interest in south Welsh weather. Nothing else to report.
Chambers has finally been booked for brining down Montero. It’s absolutely caning it down now.
GOAL FOR ARSENAL!
Swansea City 0-1 Arsenal (Sanchez, 63′)
A quick Arsenal counter attack saw Welbeck get to the byline, check back and find Sanchez on the penalty spot as he steamed into the area. The Chilean smashed it in first time to give the Gunners the lead.
Straight away Swansea have almost equalised. Montero’s drag back fell to Bony six yards out but he scuffed a shot wide.
Modou Barrow has replaced Emnes for Swansea. Tom Carroll was also booked after the goal for lunging in on Oxlade-Chamberlain as Arsenal broke.
Here’s the goal that’s given Arsenal the lead.
http://vine.co/v/OiWaOVIMwgT
GOAL FOR SWANSEA!
Swansea City 1-1 Arsenal (Sigurðsson, 75)
What a goal from Sigurðsson! He’s placed a free-kick right in the top corner from what must have been 30 yards. A beautiful strike.
GOAL FOR SWANSEA!
Swansea City 2-1 Arsenal (Gomis, 77)
Suddenly this game has come to life. He’s been a thorn in the side of Arsenal’s defence all day and finally Montero has got his reward. From the left he lifted a delicate cross into the middle allowing Gomis to climb high and power a header home. Arsenal have thrown away a lead for the second time in a week.
Wow, I need a few deep breaths after those last few minutes. In the mean time Walcott has replaced Ramsey and Wilshere has replaced Flamini for Arsenal.
Arsenal are piling on the pressure now in search of a equaliser. Fabianski has claimed everything that’s come into his area though.
Sanchez has been booked for dissent. Meanwhile Leon Britton has replaced Carroll for Swansea.
Chambers has been destroyed by Montero since the first minute but Wenger hasn’t changed it. A strange one really as it was inevitable that it would eventually lead to something.
Barrow has been booked for the home side while Sanogo has replaced Chambers for the visitors. We’ll have four added minutes.
Swansea are soaking up all of the Arsenal pressure here. Like Martin Tyler just said “it is a day for swans”…
FULL TIME: SWANSEA CITY 2-1 ARSENAL
That’s that, Gomis proved the difference after coming off the bench and ensured a bad week became worse for Arsenal.
The win moves Swansea above Arsenal into fifth place.
That’s that for me, thanks for reading and commenting, we’ll have more reaction to follow.
