A huge victory over newly promoted side eases relegation fears at the Grove.
We moved up to a reassuring mid-table position after a goalkeeping blunder enabled Andrey Arshavin to finish well from an acute angle just before half time. We survived an early scare from Danny Graham when Wojciech Szczesny pulled off a great stop and the former Watford striker missed a golden chance in the last minute to equalise.
Beating your relegation rivals is key to Premier League survival and Wenger will now be more confident of reaching the well touted target of 40 points. After the match the manager said:
'We now have a decent squad overall when everybody is back and we have chance. First we just need to put a few wins together.'
In truth though this was not the disappointing performance that many match reports would lead you to believe and a top four finish is definitely possible. We dominated an impressive but ultimately toothless Swansea side and, as should be expected, our low levels of confidence affected the fluidity of our play in the closing stages which is why we had to suffer a nervous finale. Wenger used on of his most well used lines to describe our stuttering efforts:
'We played with the handbrake on and were restrictive in the second half.'
Our new signings Per Mertesacker and Mikel Arteta both did well, with the latter in particular slotting seamlessly into the side. Mertesacker brought back memories of Tony Adams but there is a worry that he may get turned too easily against the very top players. However, unless we are playing Man Utd or Man City he looks to have all the attributes to repel Premier League attacks and provides a solution to one of our most long running problems in defence, the ability to defend aerial bombardments.
A win was the most important part of the match yesterday and we can now begin to put the most disruptive summer since Wenger joined the club behind us. We have a big squad and despite what the more negative fans may say, we are still a big force in the Premier League.