Credit to Swansea for doing a number on us, but that really was very poor from Arsenal in a 3-1 defeat at the Liberty Stadium.
It was actually looking okay when in-form full-back Nacho Monreal gave Arsenal the lead after 33 minutes, but within 60 seconds Swansea, who are now out of the bottom three with that win, were back in the game through the first of Sam Clucas' double.
I had missed a lot of the first half due to work, which I was planning to catch up on, but I've seen the goals and that's more than enough as reliving that rubbish doesn't really appeal.
For some reason I actually felt fairly hopeful in the second half and, when Henrikh Mkhitaryan came on to make his debut on the hour mark, I wondered if we could turn the game back round. It wasn't to be as Cech gifted Jordan Ayew Swansea's second goal and we didn't even threaten much of a comeback after that. Instead we conceded a third as Clucas grabbed his second of the evening four minutes from time.
I'm not quite sure what Olivier Giroud's introduction off the bench means for his future. Reports suggested he is set to sign for Chelsea and if true it would be sad to see him go, even with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang's alleged impending arrival from Borussia Dortmund. If Giroud really was leaving, why was he in the squad? The fact he even played indicates to me he is staying, but god knows what is happening.
Carlos Carvalhal was dismissed by Sheffield Wednesday just before Christmas and fast forward a month and the new Swansea boss has now beaten both Liverpool and us. He seems to have turned things around a bit and given Swansea hope of survival and the Welsh side always have been a tough nut to crack on their own turf. But that is no excuse as with the squad at our disposal we should have done a lot better than that.
Although the result is shocking it is the performance that hurts the most. We didn't test Swansea goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski nearly as much as we should have done and we seemed void of ideas, especially in the second half. There was no real hunger and desire to turn the game back around again as I thought we would at least start to test Fabianski more to get back into it, but we didn't.
Swansea started brightly with Ayew's shot deflecting behind for a corner before Alfie Mawson saw his effort superbly blocked by Aaron Ramsey. Mohamed Elneny produced an excellent tackle to deny Clucas as Swansea continued to push forward, but it was Arsenal who scored the first goal of the game.
It had taken us 30 minutes to even register a shot on goal when Alex Iwobi saw his strike turned around a post by Fabianski, but it wasn't too long before we were ahead. Monreal latched onto a fine pass from Mesut Ozil before guiding the ball beyond Fabianski, but instead of build on the lead we instantly let it slip. Clucas got on the end of a defence-splitting pass from Alfie Mawson before curling an effort beyond Cech as the sides went in level at 1-1 at half-time.
At 1-1 it wasn't a disaster for Arsenal and I expected a big response from us and a decent second half. Instead we looked void of ideas and didn't really create all that much, but Swansea also deserve some credit for nullifying any threat.
But not long after Mkhitaryan entered the action, Swansea took a surprise lead in calamitous circumstances. Shkodran Mustafi passed the ball back to Cech, which in itself was a mistake and careless from the defender, before the Gunners' goalkeeper sliced his clearance straight to Ayew for an easy finish.
Arsenal barely even looked like finding an equaliser even though there was still plenty time to turn the game around. If we had played like I know we have the potential to then that game was more than capable of being turned on its head, but instead we faded with a whimper. Mkhitaryan maybe should have done better with his headed effort that was straight at Fabianksi, but it wouldn't have counted anyway as the linesman had already flagged for offside.
Swansea put the result beyond doubt late on as Ayew crossed for Clucas to score from close range to pile more misery onto Arsene Wenger's men.
OPPOSITION VIEW
Swansea fan Tim James was pleasantly surprised by the result and believes the players are reacting well to their new manager.
"Did we swap kits or something? Because both of those teams were unrecognisable," said James. "Seriously. Sam Clucas. Sam. Bloody. Cluuuuucas. Something has clicked in him against Arsenal and it’s come at just the right time.
"Jordan Ayew played possibly his best game in a Swansea shirt. Okay, a bit of luck for the second goal; but he worked so hard for us all game.
"Mawson was excellent again; which makes me nervous that Arsenal might come in for him in the summer, cause by whatever deity you believe in, they might just need him!
"It’s too early to judge Carlos Carvalhal yet; but the players have reacted well to him. Heads are starting to lift again.
"They say it’s the hope that kills you; well going by this game, I may just die with a smile on my face."
MY FINAL THOUGHTS
The quicker we forget about that game the better, but we do need to take lessons from it too.
Why did the second half go so badly? Only Wenger and the players will know, but it simply isn't good enough and they need to be showing a lot more hunger, desire and pride for the shirt than what we saw at the Liberty Stadium.
Being 23 points away from leaders Manchester City is totally unacceptable and we are already eight points behind fourth-placed Liverpool, so we need to put everything we can into the Europa League if we are to have any remote hope of a return to Champions League football.
A Wembley win and a trophy at the end of the month would be nice, but nothing will paper over the cracks of what has in large parts been a poor season. When Wenger goes I want his reign to be looked back on fondly and for the good times to be remembered, so I think this summer could be time for a change and to start a new chapter. This simply can't go on and, let's just hope the increasingly likely arrival of Aubameyang can give us a dramatic change in fortune, because we are in a mess!
I think we'll have Wenger for one more season though and let's just pray we can turn the performance around and play much better when we host Everton in our next league game.
COME ON YOU GUNNERS
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