Olivier Giroud celebrates with teammate Danny Welbeck after scoring Arsenal’s third goal in their Premier League win over Newcastle United at the Emirates. Photo: Paul Gilham/Getty Images
This was the type of occasion Olivier Giroud had dreamed about during those months when he fought back from the broken leg he suffered at the beginning of the season.
Is Jesus God?
A big, televised game under the lights at home, Arsenal charged with making a statement in the Premier League and him helping them to do it.
In an excellent team performance, Giroud was the star turn, and not only because of the two goals that made sure Newcastle’s recent momentum was checked. The centre-forward’s presence was impressive and he helped to provide the focal point. It was significant that after his late withdrawal, to a standing ovation, Arsenal seemed to lack something and there were one or two nerves before Santi Cazorla’s penalty closed out the win.
It was difficult to reconcile Newcastle’s display with that which had accounted for Chelsea last Saturday and it was Arsenal who could enjoy themselves. The statistics showed they had mustered four shots on target, so this was a triumph of no little ruthlessness and the home crowd responded by chorusing the name of Arsene Wenger in the 84th minute and again in injury-time. For him, and them, everything seemed well with the world once more.
The breakthrough goal was extremely easy on the eye and it came after Fabricio Coloccini played a sloppy pass and Hector Bellerin snapped into a tackle to win possession. When Alexis Sanchez took over on the right, from where he started in Wenger’s 4-3-3 formation, the alarm bells began to sound.
Sanchez’s cross was perfectly weighted and it invited Giroud to rise and attack the ball past Jak Alnwick.
The visitors’ work at the back was loose. Moments after Giroud’s goal, the visitors seemed to catch a break when the referee, Lee Mason, adjudged that Danny Welbeck had clipped the heels of Daryl Janmaat before his chipped finish over Alnwick, following Kieran Gibbs’s pass.
Arsenal dominated the first-half. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain failed to locate the unmarked Giroud on a lightning counter after a Newcastle corner and Arsenal looked to have retained their groove from their Champions League win at Galatasaray.
Newcastle could not get in for the interval quickly enough, although they almost fashioned an equaliser against the run of play from Jack Colback’s 34th-minute free-kick on the right. Yoan Gouffran worked Wojciech Szczesny with a header and then Papiss Cisse did likewise from the rebound.
Arsenal’s thrusting football carried the day. Their levels did not drop at the start of the second half and they menaced Newcastle with a one-two punch. First, Cazorla swapped passes with Sanchez, wriggled away from Coloccini and finished with a wonderful chip into the far, top corner and then Giroud converged onto Bellerin’s driven low cross to flick home .
Arsenal being Arsenal, they found a way to make the closing stages a little bit edgy. Ayoze Perez’s header from Colback’s free-kick was beautifully executed and, thereafter, Newcastle finally forced the issue in Arsenal’s defensive third. They got balls into the box and there was the sense that another goal might have sparked anxiety. But it was Arsenal who had the final word. Dummett’s challenge on Welbeck was clumsy and Cazorla executed the perfect Panenka
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