Arsenal vs Swansea City: 3 Things To Watch For

Arsenal take on Swansea City in yet another must win in front of a home crowd. Here are three things to watch for throughout the match.

Arsenal have just seen Leicester City drop two points. So if there is any hope at all of them sticking in this title race, they have to put down Swansea City – convincingly would be preferable. The Gunners dropped three points against United, points that would have seen them ahead of the Foxes, assuming everything goes to plan.

Regardless, the matter at hand is putting down a Swans squad that convinced the world they would be in European contention at the start of the season. In no time flat they fired their manager, sold Jonjo Shelvey and dropped into a relegation battle. So there’s that.

Then there is Arsenal, the most enigmatic team in England. Let’s dig into those three things to watch for.

Prediction: Arsenal 2-0 Swansea City

1. Who will score?

Arsenal have a serious goal scoring problem recently. As in, no one is scoring consistently. Alexis can’t find the net to save his life. He can’t even put a shot on goal. Olivier Giroud hasn’t scored since the Dark Ages. I imagine he has probably forgotten how to celebrate. Theo Walcott should be nowhere near the pitch so I won’t even talk about him.

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Is it alarming that our top two goal scoring threats are Danny Welbeck and Mesut Ozil? Because I find that alarming. A year ago these two were our two least likely to score, now they seem to be the only two who can find the back of the net.

Which is potentially a problem. How long do Welbeck’s hair nods keep tipping into the back of the net? And we know that Ozil thinks pass first. So who does he pass to?

2. Joel Campbell with the encore

If Joel Campbell is not in the starting lineup against Swansea, I will go batty. Nobody else is working! Nobody. Joel Campbell is undoubtedly wound up like a top, all we have to do is unleash him.

When better than against Swansea? It was against Swansea that Campbell made his Premier League debut and it was a fantastic debut. Arsenal struggled initially, but Campbell was rock solid, driving the team. He was then blessed with his first Arsenal goal.

Seeing those white kits opposite him should invoke a little deja vu and kick start the form he never really lost in the first place. His work rate and hunger is desperately needed on the pitch. Hopefully Wenger can get over whatever is holding back his usage of Joel Campbell in time to start him.

3. Defensive solidarity

Arsenal’s defense has been incredibly lacking in recent matches. Errors have been painfully prevalent and something has to be done. Strange as it may sound, Arsenal need to go back to their roots. Put their regular starting four back there and let them work.

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Per Mertesacker and Laurent Koscielny have always been one of the best centerback pairings in England, so put them back together against an often stale attack. Mertesacker is absolutely primed to remind us how relevant he still is after seeing Gabriel blow a major opportunity against Manchester United.