Late goals from Kieran Gibbs and Lukas Podolski ensured Arsene Wenger celebrated his birthday with a 2-1 victory at Anderlecht.
Wenger, who turned 65 on the day of the match, looked as if he would be forced to contend with a defeat as the Gunners remained behind with 89 minutes on the clock following Andy Najar's earlier strike.
But two goals in under two minutes rescued Wenger's men and guided them to a maximum three-point haul on a nervy night in Belgium and what a crucial result it was. Not only did it stop the rot for Arsenal, who had gone two games without a win, but it also saw the London club extend their lead over third-placed Anderlecht to five points and put them a step closer to qualification for the knock-out stages.
The Gunners went into the match on the back of a disappointing 2-2 draw with Hull and, after a dire first half, it looked set for yet another draw. The first half was played at a high tempo and once again the Gunners dominated possession, but there was little action and very few clear cut chances. In fact, the best chance of the first half arguably fell to the hosts as Youri Tielemans saw his effort well blocked by Arsenal's third-choice shot-stopper Emiliano MartÃnez, who was making his Champions League debut.
Arsenal created a bit more in the second half with Aaron Ramsey shooting wide before Santi Cazorla was put through one-on-one, only to be denied by Anderlecht goalkeeper Silvio Proto.
But it was the hosts who stunned their opponents into silence with the opening goal of a tight contest. Dennis Praet crossed for Honduras midfielder Andy Najar to head home.
The Belgian outfit should've doubled their advantage but Anthony Vanden Borre's lofted effort hit the crossbar before Najar smashed the rebound into the side netting, much to the relief of the travelling supporters.
Alexis Sanchez once again displayed immense work-rate and almost levelled the scores after 80 minutes when his free-kick sailed narrowly wide and into the side netting.
Anderlecht haven't won in the Champions League for two years but looked odds on to do so with their lead still intact going into the final minute of normal time, until an unlikely hero popped up for the visitors.
Full-backs Calum Chambers and Kieran Gibbs combined expertly with the former swinging in a delightful cross for the latter to hit first time and rifle into the bottom corner of the net for his first goal of the season.
The drama wasn't over yet as substitute Lukas Podolski, who had only been on the field for seven minutes, latched onto a loose ball to smash home and snatch victory from their opponents and leave the Belgians feeling deflated.
After the match birthday boy Wenger said "You always want Podolski to have the ball in the box. He has a great shot". This begs the question of why on earth Podolski has not been given more game time. He certainly deserves to be given more of a chance to prove himself before we can really reserve judgement on the German forward, even more so if we are to prevent him from trying to seek a move away from the club in January.
Although the performance was far from ideal for the Gunners, what matters most is the result and it puts Wenger's men back on track ahead of a potentially tricky trip to Sunderland when we return to league action at the weekend. Sunderland is a game we should be winning but, after their 8-0 drubbing at the hands of Southampton last time out, the Black Cats will be hurting and it is impossible to say whether it is in fact the best or worst time to face them.
One thing is for sure - we will need to improve dramatically on the performance in Belgium. Individually there were some positives on show in our European encounter but collectively we need to create a lot more and be more clinical. I am hopeful we can use the Sunderland game as a real springboard for the rest of the season, so fingers crossed for a big performance and result at the weekend.
COME ON YOU GUNNERS!
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