The sun shines on the Emirates as Leicester wilt

Arsenal 4 Leicester City 2  
Premier League  
Saturday 13th August 2022 3pm   

It was a boiling day for the first home league match of Arsenal’s season, and there looked far less empty season ticket seats than are normally seen for the opening home fixture. And this in spite of the problems with certain train services running a severely reduced (if any) service. Did this reflect less people being away on their hols due to the problems of getting anywhere these days, a greater interest in seeing the team, or simply more use of the club’s ticket exchange and ticket transfer options. There were certainly a good number of tourists – many of whom had bought one of the new shirts. How the club must love them.

What they were treated to was a rather untypical Arsenal performance, given the memories of how much of a challenge it has been for the Gunners to open up visiting sides in recent seasons. And the difference does seem to be the contribution of Gabriel Jesus, who scored twice and had three excellent chances to complete a hat-trick. Arsenal’s attacking play was at times a delight to watch, as it had been in the opening half hour at Palace, and after 35 minutes they were two goals up, Jesus scoring both. The first was a thing of beauty, a dink over the keeper from a standing position, the second a more orthodox striker’s goal with a far post header from a corner Jamie Vardy attempted to clear, but merely teed up his opposite number.

On the subject of the Leicester striker, he was awarded a penalty by referee Darren England, which was rightly turned over when the official was invited to make certain on the VAR monitor. Vardy’s attempt to mislead the ref brought to this observer’s mind his other half’s case against Coleen Rooney. And the singing home fans had their own chant to remind the Foxes’ forward that his wife can be a little too free with supposedly private information. 

In spite of Arsenal’s dominance and a deserved win, as at Palace, there are lessons that need to be learned and quickly, as other opponents may not be as forgiving. Aaron Ramsdale made an excellent save early on after Fofana broke through a little too easily to enjoy a clear shot at goal, although the keeper hardly covered himself in glory at other times, passing the ball to the opposition, and for Leicester’s second goal, Maddison’s shot went through his legs. Defensively, the team looked a little suspect on the flanks, in spite of the upgrades in the position. The bottom line is that the matches against better opponents than Leicester will be the acid test of how good the summer business was for Arsenal. But the jury is still out if you look at Palace’s dominance in the second half in the season opener, and some of the chances Leicester enjoyed yesterday. 

It’s certainly wonderful to take maximum points from the first two matches, and I felt the result at Palace was huge. The next three matches could all see wins if the team can play to their level, even allowing for individual errors. Let’s hope they win the points they should, grow in confidence and iron out mistakes before the matches get tougher and the matches come more thick and fast with all the Europa League midweeks. 

Leicester made it 2-1 after 52 minutes, courtesy of an unfortunate headed own goal by William Saliba, trying to deal with a cross by heading it out for a corner. Ramsdale was coming out himself to meet it and was beaten as the ball went just inside the post. The crowd got behind Saliba to lift him, and aside from that, he had a pretty solid game, that early Fofana chance aside. Both he and Gabriel kept Leicester’s goal threat to a minimum for the most part. 

The visitors twice pulled the deficit back to a single goal, and both times, Arsenal responded quickly, by scoring themselves. Granit Xhaka scored the goal that made it 3-1 (after a calamitous drop by Kasper Schmeichel’s replacement Andy Ward) and Martinelli’s low shot sealed things at 4-2. There was a case for Arteta to put subs on a bit earlier due to the sapping heat, and you have to wonder whether or not Leicester’s second goal would have happened if Kieran Tierney had entered the fray a little earlier. It was an unchanged starting eleven from the Palace game, although it will be interesting to see if Ben White, for one, retains his place with Tomiyasu returning to match fitness. 

The bottom line though is that Arsenal dominated, reflected in the fact that Gabriel Jesus had more goal attempts that the entire Leicester team combined. The Foxes seem to be in a woeful state, and I’ve been told their money problems may be related to financial fair play, meaning their spending ability is limited. We’ll see how many of Fofana, Maddison and Tielemans remain at the club after the end of the month. On the subject of the latter, reputedly a target for Arsenal, he didn’t pull up many trees yesterday, although there is little doubt he is a quality player or he wouldn’t be regularly selected for a Belgium team in which there is a lot of competition for places. Certainly Arsenal need to be prepared for Thomas Partey to miss a significant number of games due to injury (and ideally nothing else).

It was a great afternoon’s entertainment, in front of a cheery, sun-kissed, noisy home crowd. Let’s hope that one swallow does not make a summer, so to speak, and that we see this kind of comfortable home win on a regular basis over the coming months.

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