Swansea City extended their giant-killing streak as barely a week after stunning Liverpool, the relegation-threatened Swans comprehensively beat Arsenal 3-1 at the Liberty Stadium to climb out of the drop zone in the Premier League table.
Gunners fullback Nacho Monreal scored the opener to extend his rich vein of goalscoring form in the 33rd minute on Tuesday night, but the Carlos Carvalhal-led hosts never gave up and would hit back almost immediately via Sam Clucas.
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After Mesut Ozil’s delightful dink was turned in by the hardworking Monreal to give the visitors the lead arguably against the run of play, Swansea responded by harrying the Gunners and their efforts paid off barely a minute after conceding as Clucas collected Alfie Mawson’s through-ball before slotting in at the near-post past Petr Cech.
There was no doubt which side had the momentum as the half-time whistle sounded, but despite their persistence, the Swans took a while before finding their second and it came via extremely fortuitous circumstances.
With the rain coming down heavily, the pitch was getting difficult to play in and as Cech made a hash of a relatively-simple back pass, Jordan Ayew said thank you very much as he tapped-in from close range right on the hour-mark.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan had come on barely a minute ago to mark his Gunners debut but Arsenal’s defensive woes were preventing them from really doing any damage to Swansea as Nathan Dyer went extremely close to extending the hosts’ lead.
Clucas would net his second and Swansea’s third four minutes from time to put the result of the tie beyond doubt when he smashed in from six yards after some good work from Ayew on the right wing.
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With the result, the Welsh outfit climb out of the relegation zone into 17th place and while they could slip back if the likes of Stoke and Southampton win their games in hand, but there can be no denying that Carvalhal has done a miraculous job since taking over the reigns.
Back-to-back wins against the likes of Liverpool and Arsenal is nothing to be scoffed at and their resurgence will certainly make things interesting as the business end of the season nears. Their next Premier League tie is an away one to Leicester City.
For Arsenal, it’s an all-too-familiar tale as not only were they average when going forward, but their calamitous defending ensured seventh loss of the season. Fourth-placed Liverpool won their game on Tuesday to reach the 50-point mark while the sixth-ranked Gunners remain stuck on 42 points and it seems that their hopes of reaching the top-four are getting slimmer by the day. Arsene Wenger’s side next host Everton and will look to bounce back to winning ways, hopefully with a certain Gabonese striker in tow.