Arsenal show fighting spirit to complete turnaround against visitors Swansea

A former Cardiff City player broke Swansea hearts as Arsenal came from behind to extend their run of home wins to 10. Aaron Ramsey completed Arsenal's comeback after Sead Kolasinac had cancelled out Sam Clucas' first goal for Swansea since moving from Hull City in summer

So Arsenal extended their run of successive home victories in the Premier League to double figures, but it was a struggle. Manager Arsene Wenger said in his programme notes that Arsenal “had no room for missing points in games any more” because of defeats on the road, and so maintaining their perfect home record was paramount. But too many of his players did not seem to have read the programme in the first half.

Teenager Eddie Nketiah's two goals against Norwich City in the Carabao Cup earned him a place on the cover of the match programme but not in the Arsenal squad, and the energy of a player such as the 18-year-old was conspicuous by its absence in the first half.

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A foul by Ki Sung-Yeung on Alexis Sanchez resulted in a free kick that Alexis Sanchez floated onto the head of Per Mertesacker but the German's header was straight at former Arsenal goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski. Sanchez then made a lung-bursting forward run but just failed to collect a pass from deep by Granit Xhaka, and Hector Bellerin had a shot blocked by Federico Fernandez.

With no sign of a Swansea shot, let alone a goal, Arsenal were playing the ball around almost casually, so it was a shock when the visitors took the lead after 21 minutes. Laurent Koscielny stumbled and fell as he attempted to clear a harmless-looking cross from Mike Van Der Hoorn, and the ball dropped conveniently for the previously anonymous Tammy Abraham. He instantly sent it through the space vacated by Koscielny to Clucas, who had run outside Bellerin and now tucked a shot under the advancing Petr Cech.

That should have woken Arsenal up, and even Mesut Ozil was seen demanding more urgency from his teammates. But they failed to respond and Sanchez' ambitious diagonal pass was a stride too far of Ozil for the midfielder to reach. Worse, they almost gifted Clucas another goal as space suddenly opened up for the Swansea man to send a shot a yard wide of Cech's goal.

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Not until the 40th minute did Fabianski have to make a difficult save, palming a stinging angled shot from Sanchez over the crossbar. And Swansea might even have added a second as Jordan Ayew caught Mertesacker in possession and forced a save from Cech.

Arsenal had to improve in the second half - and they did, their new aggression paying off after 51 minutes. Alexandre Lacazette bulldozed his way into the right side of the Swansea penalty area and although he and Ozil had shots blocked, the ball ran loose to Kolasinac. He shot through a crowd of players and in off Fabianski's gloves.

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Wenger's men must have feared they were back to square one when Abraham had the ball in their net barely a minute later but a raised flag spared them and instead they were 2-1 ahead after 57 minutes. Kolasinac was the provider this time, chesting the ball down on the left and rolling the ball into the path of Ramsey. He almost passed the ball home with his left foot, Fabianski getting an outstretched foot to the ball but unable to prevent it going in.

Arsenal could have scored a third but Lacazette failed with an attempt at a diving header from Bellerin's cross, and Bellerin's scooped first-time effort from Ramsey's pass dropped onto the crossbar. Finally substitute Olivier Giroud volleyed wide from Monreal's cross

Arsenal (3-4-3): Cech; Koscielny, Mertesacker, Monreal; Bellerin, Ramsey, Xhaka, Kolasinac (Holding 78); Ozil, Lacazette (Giroud 81), Sanchez.

Substitutes: Macey, Wilshere, Walcott, Iwobi, Coquelin.

Swansea City (3-5-2): Fabianski; Van Den Hoorn (Narsingh 82), Fernandez, Mawson; Naughton, Fer, Ki, Carroll (McBurnie 84), Clucas; Ayew (Dyer 82), Abraham.

Substitutes: Nordfeldt, Routledge, Mesa, Rodon.