Swansea review: a worthy replacement

Good day everyone.
Saturday saw us win 9th straight game this season and 12th in a row away game. What made the result even more satisfying, is the fact that we retained the top spot in the league, while a blunder from Spurs ensured we are now two points clear.
It was a day of surprises, because not only did Tottenham share the spoils with Chelsea, but both clubs from Manchester lost their respective games. After that, BBC was quick to note, that the last time Arsenal were eight points ahead of United was in 2005. The day kept getting better.
September 28th marked another occasion. It was on this day that Arsene Wenger joined the club 17 years ago. Later the man has noted, that a win was better than any cake. And while I think, he could have both things, I'm still joyous at how committed Arsene is to our cause.
The first 45 minutes were rather dull. Swansea was dominating possession, but chances were few and far between. The closest they came was when Michu seemingly left the ball in play, only for some bloke to squander the opportunity to send the ball into an empty goal. The linesman, however, raised the flag seconds earlier, to signal that the ball did indeed went out of play. Replays proved him right.
Other than that, Szczesny dealt with everything thrown his way (which mostly came down to claiming crosses) with composure and relative ease.
Our best (and probably only) good chance came in the dying moments of the half, when Gnabry sent Giroud clear, only for the Frenchman to roll the ball wide from a devastating position. I'm not inclined to blame him, however, cause a couple of minutes prior to this opportunity, Giroud went down in pain, nursing his ankle. The moment was made even scarier, when Bendtner started warming up. Luckily, it didn't go beyond this.
The second half wasn't much better for the first ten minutes or so, but we did have more of the ball this time around. The goal came basically from nowhere, and I was as surprised as Swansea defenders were. Giroud miscontrolled pass fell to Ramsey, but the Welshman seemed ready for such a surprise.
He slid a pass for the onrushing Gnabry, whose first-time shot found the bottom corner. Truth be told, such a finish reminds me of Theo Walcott at his best. The timing of the run, the quality of his finish and the relative ease, with which Gnabry converted his chance didn't suit his young looks at all. He didn't look like a youngster, fresh out of the academy, rather a seasoned pro. His unconstrained joy at proving his worth was all the more welcome.
The next frenetic five minutes saw Ozil spurn a wonderful opportunity after Ramsey set him up, before the Welshman took matters in his own hands.
Aaron flicked a pass towards Whilshere, continued his run and, after some fancy backheel passing from Giroud, was set up nicely to smash the ball into the roof of the net. It marked 8th goal for Ramsey this season. I've run out of superlatives to describe how brilliant Aaron is this season. He is in out-of-this-world-good form.
After that, we kept the tempo of the play down, basically gave the ball away and seemed content to let Swansea come at us. The overwhelming sense of confidence in our back four, complemented by Flamini`s and later Arteta`s presence played a bad joke with our clean sheet in the end.
The warning signs were there alright, first when Dyer lashed out a low shot, which Szczesny had to go full-stretch to palm away and then Whilshere gifted Bony a chance, which he, mercifully, wasted.
The goal came in the 81th minute. Davies stormed down our right flank, passed the ball to Bony, kept running, received the return pass and sent the ball into the net. Sagna is partly guilty of this goal, by letting Davies make the run in the first place, but honestly, it was a good combination from Swansea, so let's give them credit where it's due.
After that, they did their best to find an equaliser, but never came close and we snatched all the three points in the end.
Once again we saw a side of our game, which isn't all that attractive, but necessary to achieve results. We played well on counter-attacks, took the few chances we had, and dug in defensively the rest of the time. It's very pleasing to witness us deliver performance after performance with that level of defensive discipline and commitment. It bodes well for the future.
The manager expressed his delight at the current form of the team, while also picking out Gnabry and Ramsey. Enough has been said about the latter, but it's interesting to see Wenger express such confidence, that the young German is ready to step up and play on a regular basis. Once Rosicky and Cazorla return, it leaves a dilemma for Arsene to solve, namely: who should be dropped from the first team. We're not quite there yet, but Gnabry had certainly proved he can play on the flank week in, week out.
That's it for today, back tomorrow for Napoli preview