I didn’t expect our game against Arsenal to go well and sadly, I was right. Let’s all be honest, games against Arsenal and Liverpool aren’t going to define our season, it’s the ones against Newcastle United and Burnley which count.
What happened was that we at least restricted our goal difference to a minus of just two, which means we are at minus five overall. If the league were determined on goal difference alone, we’d actually be safe in thirteenth.
Despite not expecting the win, the blame for our loss rests with the officials and Kristoffer Nordfeldt. Danny Welbeck’s opener was offside in my humble opinion, before Nordfeldt started to come for Welbeck’s second, only to be a few yards short and the England striker just sidefooted the ball under him. The free-kick we gave away for Arsenal’s third was soft but Sanchez’s effort was saveable, but Nordfeldt had weak wrists and let the Chilean’s effort though.
Delighted to see André Ayew combine for our consolation goal. More on him later in my deadline day review. For a first impression, it wasn’t bad to see him beat Hector Bellerin for pace (which is rare) and crossed for Jordan to convert.
The left-wing problem position started with Clucas, Narsingh won a vote amongst Swansea fans, went back to Clucas for Newcastle and now we have André Ayew. I’m going to give him the shirt for the next two games.
As a result of Nordfeldt’s performance, I’m going to drop him back to the U23’s and bring back Erwin Mulder to act as back up for Fabianski. Arsenal were their usual slick passing self, all the hallmarks of Arsenal’s most successful sides and they have a fully-motivated Alexis Sanchez.
In terms of our deadline day, it was a busy one, wasn’t it? To recap the departures; we sent McBurnie, Jay Fulton and Kyle Bartley out on loan to Championship clubs, Leon Britton and Ki Sung-Yeung were unhappy at lack of game time and were allowed to leave. Coming in we broke our transfer record to bring André Ayew back to the club from West Ham United for £18.5 million and we have Andy King from Leicester City on loan, which screams good business.
Bony is just about back to full fitness, Fabianski will be ready for Manchester United on Wednesday. This game was indeed a loss but not one which will hold us back.
