Jamie Vardy’s brace appeared to have Leicester on course for
victory at Arsenal but Aaron Ramsey and Olivier Giroud stole the points.
Aaron
Ramsey and Olivier Giroud came off the bench snatch victory from the
jaws of defeat for Arsenal, who opened the 2017-18 Premier League season
with a topsy-turvy 4-3 thriller against Leicester City.
Record
signing Alexandre Lacazette handed the ideal start to boss Arsene
Wenger, back at Emirates Stadium for the first time since signing his
much-debated two-year contract extension, by opening the scoring after
94 seconds, but matters quickly threatened to unravel.
Wenger’s
gamble to field a back three featuring one recognised centre-back
collapsed in a display of complete defensive incompetence. Shinji
Okazaki was the initial beneficiary with a fifth-minute equaliser.
England
striker Jamie Vardy, who was heavily linked with Arsenal 12 months ago,
scored a brace either side of a Danny Welbeck leveller that showed
Arsenal’s rearguard to be equally dreadful from open play and set-piece
situations.
But it was a different story at the
other end as Wenger called upon additional firepower in the form of
Aaron Ramsey and Giroud to turn the match around inside the final seven
minutes and ward off a return to last season’s febrile atmosphere of
protest on home turf – at least for the time being.
Lacazette
went into the match having scored six times on the past four opening
days in Ligue 1 with Lyon and he quickly improved an impressive record
by dispatching Mohamed Elneny’s inviting cross beyond Kasper Schmeichel.
Any
notion of an untroubled statement of Arsenal’s Premier League title
intentions was disabused 160 seconds later when Petr Cech made a
horrible hash of pursuing Vardy’s cross to the far post from a short
corner, an unmarked Harry Maguire nodded back across goal and Okazaki
headed in.
Debutant Maguire was making his
presence felt in both boxes and the centre-back made a brave block when
Welbeck tried to convert Mesut Ozil’s 22nd-minute cutback.
Welbeck’s
effort at the end of a jinking run was hacked out of the Leicester
goalmouth but the visitors went ahead against the run of play before the
half hour.
Marc Albrighton pounced on a loose
ball and centred for Vardy to punish more comical Arsenal defending –
Okazaki might then have doubled his tally when he headed narrowly wide
in the 33rd minute.
With murmurs of discontent
growing, Lacazette and Sead Kolasinac combined to present Welbeck with a
welcome tap-in during first-half stoppage time.
Cech
was at full stretch to tip Riyad Mahrez’s 56th minute strike over but
Vardy was allowed a free run at the Algeria international’s resulting
corner and glanced in to restore Leicester’s lead.
Arsenal’s
sustained excellent attacking play made their defensive frailties all
the more galling. Welbeck bewitched the Leicester backline to delicately
play in Hector Bellerin, who was brilliantly denied by Schmeichel.
Fuchs
did enough to distract Ramsey when the Wales international powered wide
from Lacazette’s cross and tensions from the stands seemed to have
spilled on to the pitch when Ozil lashed into the side netting with 16
minutes remaining.
It was left to Ramsey to drag the masses back in Arsenal’s favour.
Handball
claims against Ozil went unpunished before an 83rd-minute corner that
was worked out to Xhaka, whose raking ball found Ramsey stealing around
Wilfred Ndidi for a clinical finish.
Schmeichel
then suffered the same cruel fortune as Cech before him – saving
superbly after Lacazette zig-zagged through a defence that allowed
Giroud to head in the corner via the crossbar for the FA Cup and
Community Shield holders.
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