Arsenal face Leicester in the Premier League on Friday, Aug. 11. Here are all the highlights from the match
As always is the case, Arsenal began their 2017-18 Premier League campaign with high hopes. That’s the norm for Arsene Wenger’s side, though they’ve not lived up to that mark in recent years. However, there was reason to believe that the Gunners can turn that narrative around. If they’re to do so, they needed to start on Friday, Aug. 11 against Leicester.
Those high hopes for Arsenal were quickly realized in the form of prized transfer signing, Alexandre Lacazette. With Alexis Sanchez still out of the lineup, he came through and found net early. The Gunners built up to the goal beautifully with Hector Bellerin finding Mohamed Elneny, who then put a beautiful ball right to Lacazette’s head for a goal in just the second minute.
In typical fashion, however, Arsenal seemed to lose their composure immediately after. Leicester responded with a fierce attack of their own. Soon enough, they found themselves in front of net as well when Shinji Okazaki came in on the far post unmarked and put one in net to level things in just the fifth minute.
At the Emirates, the home side settled after conceding for a bit, and put together the better attacking play for much of the first half. Yet, that wasn’t long-lived, much to their dismay. Arsenal began to suffer from sloppy play in the midfield. They conceded possession numerous times, and it finally cost them.
A poorly placed pass outside left Marc Albrighton with possession pushing forward. From the outside, he curled in a gorgeous ball around defenders in the box and right onto the foot of Jamie Vardy. Vardy knew what to do with it, pushing the 2015-16 Premier League champs ahead.
Arsenal shored things up somewhat, but didn’t seem to be threatening after falling behind 2-1 for much of the rest of the half. Once in stoppage time, though, they turned up the heat. With numbers forward, they found Lacazette in the middle, and a blocked shot by a defender fell right to Sead Kolasinac. He played a nifty touch to Danny Welbeck and it was put away to level things right before the halftime whistle.
Still in the middle of the match coming out of the half, it looked as if Leicester would remain firmly in control. Sure enough, that’s the way things played out as Vardy converted another beautiful ball into the middle for a goal, pushing them ahead 3-2.
But if there’s one thing you can always count on, it’s a late scramble from the Gunners.
Indeed, Arsenal continued to find quality until the final 10 minutes of action it seemed. Right around that mark, however, things turned around in a big way. In the 83rd minute off a corner, Granit Xhaka put the ball into the box and substitute Aaron Ramsey found space to get a right-footed shot into the net to level things.
Rallying off that momentum, the home side didn’t stop there. Lacazette came in with a nifty move and effort that was saved. On the ensuing corner, however, there was no save good enough for Olivier Giroud, another sub, as he headed it just across the line to pull ahead 4-3.
Leicester tried to scramble to get an attack going, but came up empty as the Gunners kept pressing. There were no more goals to be found, though, which was fine enough for Arsenal as they escaped with the the thrilling three points to open the Premier League season.
Highlights
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As far as Arsenal victories go, they don’t get much more typical than this. We saw the whole range of their play, from horrible to brilliant. For the sake of fans, however, it’d be great to see them have a bit more consistent quality over 90 minutes.