Arsenal earned their first win of the Premier League season with a 1-0 triumph over Swansea at the Emirates.
Arshavin scores in first half as Gunners secure 1-0 success
Arsenal earned their first win of the Premier League season after a terrible error from Swansea goalkeeper Michel Vorm gifted Andrey Arshavin the only goal of the game at the Emirates.
Vorm has been impressive so far this term but inexplicably rolled the ball out to the unwitting Angel Rangel five minutes before half-time, only for Arshavin to pounce and coolly lift it into an empty net.
The Gunners were looking to bounce back from their humbling at Manchester United but it was a lukewarm response rather than a spectacular one.
Mikel Arteta had a good game on his debut, as did Per Mertesacker, but Swansea had chances of their own.
Still to net their first goal of the campaign, Danny Graham was denied by a fine save from Wojciech Szczesny in the first half before blazing over late on.
Arsenal had started brightly, with former Cardiff youngster Aaron Ramsey blasting over as Arteta orchestrated midfield on his debut.
It was, though, Swansea who almost snatched a shock lead on seven minutes.
Fine save
The ball was swung in from the right and Graham got in front of new arrival Mertesacker, but despite being wrong-footed Szczesny made an acrobatic save to claw the striker's close-range effort off the line.
Arsenal were soon back on the offensive, and a quick break saw Arshavin release Theo Walcott. The England man slipped his shot under the advancing keeper, but Vorm had got just enough on the ball to slow it down as Steven Caulker, on loan from Tottenham, recovered to hack clear from in front of his own net.
Swansea were forced to defend deeper and deeper as Arsenal pressed for an opening goal.
A neat exchange between Robin van Persie and Emmanuel Frimpong, back from suspension, opened up space at the edge of the area, but the young midfielder dragged his shot wide.
Swansea, though, slowly grew in confidence and looked more comfortable on the ball, while Scott Sinclair provided a lively outlet on the left.
On 35 minutes, full-back Neil Taylor got away down the left and sent over a dangerous cross which flew right through the Arsenal six-yard area.
Arsenal went ahead five minutes from the break following a slice of good fortune.
Vorm tried a quick roll out on the right of the area, only to hit the heels of defender Rangel which left Arshavin to gratefully stroke the loose ball into the empty net from a tight angle.
Swansea made a strong start to the second half, when Walcott was cautioned for clattering into Taylor, the England striker protesting assistant referee Simon Bennett had missed a clear tug on him.
After 53 minutes, Laurent Koscielny followed into Stuart Attwell's notebook after scything down the lively Sinclair 20 yards out.
The former Chelsea man took the free-kick himself and clipped the ball against the top of crossbar.
At the other end, captain Van Persie, who was in top form for Holland during the international break, shrugged off two defenders before bursting into the centre of the Swansea area and was unfortunate to see his curling shot hit the outside of the right-hand post.
The Dutch forward then blasted over the bar having been set up at the edge of the box by Ramsey.
Pressure
Arsenal slowly started to build a period of sustained pressure without really stretching the Swansea backline.
Bacary Sagna's deep cross flew through the penalty area and just eluded Van Persie at the far post.
Marouane Chamakh replaced Van Persie for the closing 10 minutes and the Morocco striker almost had an instant impact when nodding a close-range header goalwards from Kieran Gibbs' left-wing cross.
Swansea, however, battled to the end and forced Arsenal back into some desperate defending as they forced a couple of corners during stoppage-time as Graham blazed over from close range.
