Home Premier League Arsenal Danny Welbeck gives Arsenal vital win

Danny Welbeck gives Arsenal vital win

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Striker returns to first-team football and scores 95th minute winner

Danny Welbeck marked his return to first-team football with a 95th-minute winner against Leicester City at the Emirates Stadium this lunchtime.

The Gunners went into the game five points off the league leaders, but knew if they could see of Claudio Ranieri’s men, they’d be within touching distance of them going into the final few months.

Leicester came into the game off an impressive 3-1 win against Manchester City, whilst Arsenal finally picked up three points by beating AFC Bournemouth, after a poor January.

Summary

Both teams like to play open and expansive football, so it was no surprise to see both teams going for it, but in terms of chances, it was a fairly quiet opening half.

Jamie Vardy came the closest when his header was saved brilliantly by Petr Cech, but it was the England international who got the first goal of the game right on half-time.

Vardy was brought down in the box by Nacho Monreal, and he picked himself up to thump home the spot-kick, sending Cech the wrong way.

The game could have been put to bed by the Foxes had they been given a second penalty, but this time, Martin Atkinson said no to Riyad Mahrez, who felt Monreal had brought him down.

Then came the swing. Danny Simpson saw red just before the hour mark after picking up a second yellow, and from then on, it was all Arsenal.

They were knocking and knocking and eventually got their reward when Olivier Giroud nodded down into the path of Theo Walcott, who thumped home past Kasper Schmeichel.

With 20-minutes left, Arsenal were sensing they could go on and win the game, but they had to wait until the 95th minute.

A Mesut Ozil free-kick was met by the head of returning Welbeck, who glanced it home past Schmeichel to give Arsenal the vital three points and the 2-1 win.

It puts Arsenal second for the time being, but just two points off Leicester City.

Match Reaction

Arsenal’s match winner Danny Welbeck on Sky Sports: “Dying seconds, we kept pushing, had chance after chance. I missed the first opportunity and tried to make amends. It is important and the most important thing is to get the win. It has been a roller-coaster for me, a difficult moment and my family and friends know what I have been through.”

Arsenal substitute Theo Walcott: “This man hasn’t played for nine months and to get into the mix like that, special players come into into big games. That could be massive.”

Arsenal keeper Petr Cech talking to BBC Sport: “We had to concentrate in the final stages because any counter attack was becoming more and more dangerous as we searched for the winner. It was tricky.

“What I like about our win is that it is always tricky when opponents are down to 10 men. They have good organisation and are fighting for their lives. We managed to break them down and create chances. We kept missing chances but kept composure and kept coming.

“We had so many half chances where we could have scored more.”

“if you have a cushion of five or eight points it is a big difference. We overturned eight points to two – it is significant difference.”

On Danny Welbeck: “It has been a great day for him because working hard to come back. we could see last couple of weeks that he was ready and sharp and confident in training. He really deserved.”

Leicester manager Claudio Ranieri talking to Sky Sports: “It was a fantastic match, very fast. I don’t know if in a normal match that our two yellows cards was a sending off. They were normal fouls, but not yellow cards. I think the referee was too severe to us for the sending-off. 11 v 11, I’m sure we win the match. The match was full of fouls so why send off a player? Come on.

“We know Arsenal are a fantastic team, they move the ball quickly and have skill, but we had to concentrate. We tried to counter attack and we controlled the match very well.

“They scored with the last chance – they were smarter than us.

“We are still top of the table, got two points more – we must carry on and smile. We lost to our opponents – we must say well done.”

Written by Alex Batt – @AlexBatt

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