Arsenal unsurprisingly made hard work of it, but they got the job done by taking all three points as the Premier League season began with a seven-goal thriller against Leicester.
I was buzzing to be there in attendance and the atmosphere was electric and probably the best I've ever experienced at the Emirates, but at times the tension was unbearable and at 3-2 down I genuinely thought we'd thrown the points away.
We produced some great attacking moves at times, but then undid it with some woeful defending and we definitely won't get away with that too often if we play like that again this season.
For the neutrals it must have been a superb game to watch, whilst I was sat there thinking my record of having never seen Arsenal lose live at the Emirates was under threat. Myself and two Gooner friends, Rob and Tim, and my brother, who happens to support our bitter rivals Tottenham, had an incredible view near the front and the reaction as we got our third and fourth goals was insane.
Before going into talking about the match action, I want to single out a handful of players for a mixture of reasons. For me Nacho Monreal was the man of the match. Nobody was faultless as collectively the players showed some weakness during the game, but I thought Monreal looked so controlled, calm and collected for the most part and I much prefer him at centre-back to when he plays full-back. Especially in a game where collectively our defence was a bit of a shambles at times he stood out and at least helped to steady the ship.
Left-back and summer signing Sead Kolasinac impressed and his little spin in the second-half was great to see, while fellow new-boy Alexandre Lacazette took just two minutes to score on what was a decent league debut for the French striker. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain worked tirelessly throughout and I am hoping the fact he started the game will help to quash rumours that he could leave.
Although these were all decent positives, we can't hide behind the fact we shipped in three goals at home and they really were sloppy goals to concede. We got away with it this time, but we really need to defend better than that in the future. Yes we were without Laurent Koscielny, but if he was to get injured or suspended at any other points this season we need to make sure we can cope better.
The player that disappointed me the most was Hector Bellerin. I don't like saying this as normally I'm a big admirer of his and maybe he is just lacking confidence in himself following his injury last season, but he looked a shadow of the player I've seen before. He had the ball in decent positions and previously he would have tried to take players on, but in this match he just either passed to a team-mate or lost the ball. He didn't make the most of his electric pace and on that performance I wouldn't start him next time, so I really hope he gets back to form soon.
So onto the match...well it couldn't have started any better could it. Inside the opening two minutes of the match Lacazette met Mohamed Elneny's cross with a great header into the bottom corner and I briefly wondered whether maybe we'd open up the floodgates and put the game out of sight. It definitely didn't turn out that way!
By the half hour mark we were 2-1 down following goals from Shinji Okazaki and Jamie Vardy. Three minutes after Lacazette's opener Okazaki nodded in following Harry Maguire's headed assist. Kolasinac forced a save out of Kasper Schmeichel in the Leicester goal before Vardy put the Foxes in front after scoring from Marc Albrighton's cross. Although he has taken responsibility for his error it was poor how Granit Xhaka gifted possession to Leicester to set up the visitors' attack.
It almost got worse when Rob Holding needlessly gave away possession but, fortunately for the Gunners, Okazaki's header sailed just wide.
But Danny Welbeck levelled the scores on the stroke of half-time with a huge equaliser to give us more hope of swinging the game back in our favour. Mesut Ozil, Lacazette and Kolasinac were all involved before the latter set up Welbeck to score from close range.
Arsenal goalkeeper Petr Cech had to be alert to deny Vardy and Riyad Mahrez in the early stages of the second half, but within 11 minutes of the restart Leicester were back in front. Vardy's header delighted the travelling fans, but it was a really poor goal to concede and the defending was very poor.
With 23 minutes remaining Arsene Wenger sent on substitutes Aaron Ramsey and Olivier Giroud and the duo both made a goalscoring impact to seal the points for the Gunners. In fact, Ramsey very nearly scored even earlier as within a minute of coming on his header went just wide. Schmeichel then saved Xhaka's half-volley before Arsenal's two goals in the final eight minutes of normal time gave the hosts a 4-3 win.
Ramsey latched onto an inch-perfect pass from Xhaka before firing home an angled strike. Leicester fans won't have been happy with the goal as the ball did appear to hit Ozil's arm before Arsenal won the corner from which the goal was scored from.
Schmeichel tipped Lacazette's effort over the bar before that man Giroud powered home a header in off the crossbar from Xhaka's resulting corner five minutes from time.
OPPOSITION VIEW
Leicester fan Tom Earl believes substitutions were a key factor in the outcome of his side's defeat at the Emirates.
"Both teams still seem to have an issue with defending," said Earl. "I think the subs changed the game. Arsenal's were decent and Leicester's were awful.
"But I have a slight grumble with the Ozil handball that won Arsenal the corner.
Earl also gave his view on Arsenal's summer signings adding: "Lacazette looked a handful and should get plenty of goals. Kolasinac is a beast, he might get a few bookings though."
MY FINAL THOUGHTS
It wasn't the best of performances overall, but considering our previous poor record with opening day fixtures I was delighted and relieved to see Arsenal get all three points.
With tough back-to-back away games coming up at Stoke and Liverpool it was imperative that we won this one and, whilst I can't deny there was some worryingly poor decision making on show at times, it was an excellent result.
If we can iron out the silly mistakes then who knows, but one thing is for sure, that was one hell of an exciting start to the new season.
COME ON YOU GUNNERS
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