Sky Sports Premier League Podcast
Arsenal surge to emotional win and City outclass Swansea
22 Apr 2018
Chapter 1: What were the key moments in Arsenal's victory over West Ham?
Well, the game at the Emirates was very much in the balance before an awful defensive mix-up for West Ham gave Aaron Ramsey that goal. Confusion between Declan Rice and Joe Hart made it 2-1 for Arsenal. Lacazette then putting the game really beyond doubt. And then Ramsey serving up Lacazette for his 13th of the season. 4-1 it finished.
Delight for Arsene Wenger in his penultimate home league game in charge. And now Aaron Ramsey is with Jeff Shreves. Aaron, right result for Arsenal, but a completely different second half to the first half. What did you put that down to? Yeah, we took a bit of time to get going. It was very hot out there, but I don't want to make excuses. We wasn't quite at it, but we stayed in the game.
It was 0-0, so it was important for us to come out second half and put that right. So we're delighted in the end to come away with a convincing win.
Your goal puts you in the top 10 goal scorers under Arsene Wenger.
Be honest though, when it left your foot, did you think it was going in? No, it was for over, but I'm glad he left it. I'll take that. I'm delighted on a personal note, but more importantly, we got the three points today. What has it been like for you the last 48 hours, absorbing the news of Arsene Wenger's departure? Yeah, obviously it's really tough to take from the group of lads.
Yeah, he's believed in us, he's backed us and given us all these opportunities over the years, especially for me. He's brought me here as a 17-year-old, so I owe him a lot, but he deserves everything that he gets, all the applauded and all the recognition of all the great work he's done here over the years, and hopefully we can finish off the season on a high for him.
Also, for you players, is there now an uncertainty?
You're playing for your futures too, as well as wanting to give him the send-off you would like. Yeah, we're not thinking about who's coming in next. It's more about doing it for him now. Hopefully, we can win every single game and finish off with a cup. That would be the perfect send-off for him. Thanks, Aaron.
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Chapter 2: How did Aaron Ramsey reflect on his goal and Wenger's departure?
Cheers. Thank you. And you join Craig Bellamy, Thierry Henry and Jamie Redknapp here pitch side at the Etihad where this place will be full later. They haven't had the chance to celebrate, remember, in front of their own fan city since becoming champions last Sunday. So they get the chance here today against Swansea City. We kick off at half past four, about an hour from now in that game.
Plenty of time to reflect on Arsenal's certainly second half performance there against West Ham United. Was that much better, much improved second time round?
Yeah, it was much better. I think for an hour or so, 65 minutes, you kind of didn't know where the game was going to go. Arnautovic scored a well-deserved goal, I think, because he played really well and you could see that West Ham was going to score or deserved maybe to score from their first half. And then in the second half, typical Arsenal, they scored that goal from Aaron Ramsey.
I won't say that it's a lucky goal because it's still a good cross that you have to put in, but misunderstanding between the goalkeeper and Rice, draw out, obviously, and Rice. And they went 2-1. And when that happens with Arsenal, five minutes to go and you collapse... You put two more or three more minutes there, they would have had a fifth one or a sixth one.
So it looks great at the end, but overall it's also a good one for the boss. They gave him a win and like I said at the beginning of the game, it was also about creating that gap with Burnley. I know people are laughing about it, but creating that gap with Burnley, that's good for me.
just takes a bit of pressure off with Burnley still to come in his last home league game in charge for Arsene Wenger let's go right back to the start of the second half it was a it seemed more purposeful Arsenal right from the start even though it was an unlikely goal scorer a man who hadn't scored in four previous seasons Craig you know he's got five this well they stepped it up second half they needed to because first half is way too slow especially West Ham came to frustrate Arsenal they got men behind the ball very easy but
Cresswell loses, man. Very, very easy. Loses Monreal. And Jamie, do you want to help me out a little bit on the post here? Because we were just... Matsuaki, you give him a job to do, do the post, but you don't stand outside it, do you, Craig? We just couldn't believe it. He moved away. We see it a lot. We see a lot of teams then not putting men on the posts.
But if you're on it, please be inside it.
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Chapter 3: What did the analysts say about Arsenal's second-half performance?
Defend the goal at all costs. And all right, maybe you were sort of unsure about Joe Hart. Maybe you could have done better. But I'm looking at the man on the post has to do better. Let's get to the equaliser, though, from West Ham United. Another really good goal from Marco Nautovic, whose reputation, Jamie, seems to be growing by the week. This is 10 now in his last 16. Absolutely.
He made a couple of changes as well, David Moyes. He freshened it up. Lanzini came onto the game. It might not look a great pass. It's because he almost toes it, but he knows exactly what he's doing there. He gets that ball to Nautovic, who comes alive after being in an offside position. It's a really good piece of play. Offside there.
fractional yeah possibly you know one of those it's very difficult for the linesman to see but once he doesn't give it you can see he's almost a bit frustrated he stays down for a second then he realizes what something might happen here and this is a really clever the position one that you used to take up a lot Thierry that left-hand side one well it's a dream come true for him because none of the arsenal players ever looked to see where he was coming back from
There is an urgency that you need to have there. As a centre-forward, you're not looking at me, I go exactly... Look for space. And you're going on the black side of everything. They're all looking there, I go there. But as a defender, please, can you not do that and check where the guy is? You know he stayed there. The ball hasn't been cleared. He's in and around the box somewhere.
You have to look and don't take anything away from the finish because that was a hell of a finish. But still, great move from Arnautovic coming back in a zone where no one was there and no one saw you there. But Arsenal players, you need to look where the guy is.
When you come out, you have to mark players. Fortunately, we see it a lot.
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Chapter 4: How did West Ham's defensive mistakes impact the match outcome?
It's great for us because we get to see a lot of goals. But still a very good finish by Arnautovic. Aaron Ramsey said he didn't expect to score to put Arsenal in front. How did West Ham get in such a defensive mess here, Craig? Well, look, West Ham came to frustrate. They did a very good job. They were on a counter-attack, always causing a threat.
But bringing on Lanzini, bringing on Hernandez, then they opened, they left a little bit of space there. And to be fair to Arsenal, made the most of the opportunity. This is just a hopeful ball in. But Declan Rice, do you know what to the kid? He's done very well this season. And he's learning. And I'll tell you what, he won't be making that mistake again because he was.
He should have just got his head on it, cleared it. Joe's there saying he's shouted away. But the defender should have took responsibility then and cleared his lines. And Arsenal then tails up Jamie. Yeah, very much so. And Aaron Ramsey started to come into the game. And these goals are so important for Lacazette. You know what it's like, Thierry, Craig, you're forwards.
This is what you're looking for. You've got a massive game on Thursday. You need him to find some form and some confidence. And I think it looks like an inspired decision by the manager to play him now because he needs that confidence and those goals hopefully against Atletico. Well, like I said, gets goals. Scores, you know, for the last six, seven seasons, that's what he does.
Given the opportunity, he will score goals. Look, I still think there's a little bit more I'd like to see him do outside the box.
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Chapter 5: What were the standout performances in Manchester City's win against Swansea?
What about this from Aaron Ramsey as well?
Great, great move there. Like I said, standing his ground, knowing where he is, knowing that the defender is going to come, let the ball go on the other side of yourself, control it well, keep it low, and that's for one. But to go back to like I said, he will score you goals. Aubameyang will score your goals.
Obviously, Aubameyang can't play on Thursday, so that's why he went with those guys at the beginning. But what I'm trying to say here is that to think about the future, those goals need to also go in the back of the net, away from home. You can't only win the league by winning games against teams that are at the bottom of the league and thinking that's how you're going to win the league.
That's great. Great for Arsenal today. great to prepare the game on Thursday, but you win titles and you win trophies also because you win games away from home and you score goals away from home. That's very important. I've been saying that they were great in the second half. It's certainly cost them this season, Arsenal.
Only Man City have scored more goals at home than them and won more points at home than Arsenal this time round. So the long goodbye gets off to a good start. We'll reflect on that and get more reaction from the Emirates when we come back. Well, Arsene Wenger made his big announcement this week and his team have responded, certainly the second half here against West Ham.
They've seen them off, ultimately, by four goals to one. His reaction now with Jeff Shreves. Arsene, what did you make of that?
I feel that we've been on the line of our home game since the start of the season. You look at the number of points we've made at home, I think we are at the moment top of the home league, even if City must say they're certainly better than us when they've completed all their games. And we constructed patiently our win in the first half. It was difficult to find space.
They did close us down well. They were well-organized, but we kept composure, patience. And from the second half on, we looked always like we could score goals because we found more space. On top of that, we have shown a great spirit again. For you, was your key goal the second goal?
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Chapter 6: How did Kevin De Bruyne's goal exemplify City's dominance?
Yes, of course. At 1-1, you could see whether we were wobbling or not. The second goal killed them definitely from then on. But we had a spell in the second half when we came out where we should have scored two or three goals. When they came back to 1-1, it was interesting to see how we responded to that. You said you can separate personal feelings from your job.
But what did you make of the warm applause you received and your name being sung by the crowd? It's nice. You want your fans to be happy. And if sometimes I can be happy as well, it's good as well. So overall, if you can combine both, I'm ready to suffer to make them happy. But if sometimes I'm happy as well, it's not bad. Good preparation for Thursday?
Yeah.
It's good preparation apart from the fact that we lost certainly Elneny today and it doesn't look good on his ankle. We had Wilshere not available today, not Ozil available for different reasons. He was sick and let's see how everybody recovers. The games are counting down now until you go.
Can you clarify for us, because whenever we've asked you before about whether or not you would resign, you always say to us, I always respect my contracts.
That's what I do. But not this time. I respect my contract. Today I'm here on the bench and I respected my contract.
But you have a year next year. Have you made this decision because the board inferred to you that they were thinking of making a change so you could take the lead?
Look, I have nothing to add. I think it was in my statement. What I wanted to say, apart from that, I think there's not a lot to say.
Do you expect to get another coaching job soon after Arsene?
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Chapter 7: What challenges do Swansea face in their fight against relegation?
My focus is as it has always been. my loyalty to this club until the last day I'm here after. We'll see. Do you think perhaps sometime a long way in the future you could even return to this club in some capacity? I don't know. It does not depend on me. I feel I accumulated the knowledge, the history for this club.
We look at the number of Premier League games we have played together, the number of European Cup games, the number of FA Cup games we have played together. We have built a history, we have built a solid foundation and a structural fund. If you look at what the club was when I arrived and what it is today, I think we have gone a good way together.
Are you sad?
Now, at the moment, I'm happy because we won the game. You know what I'm referring to. We won the game and for the rest, let's continue to separate my feelings from the results of the team. I understand your diplomacy. Thanks, Arsene.
Maybe there will come a time where we will know the answer to some of those questions that Jeff Shreves is posing to Arsene Wenger this afternoon. Craig, if the new manager was watching on today, what do you think he would have learned about that Arsenal team? The same problems really that we usually see over the last year, two years. I think sometimes they like to take too many touches.
Players not really staying in a position, floating around in areas, getting in each other's way at times. I feel this Arsenal team without the ball are not great. They need shoring up to the fence, worried me. massively today. The two centre-backs are really a big concern. Inatovic on his own caused them a lot of problems. So, yeah, I think there's a lot of work to be done at Arsenal.
Thierry, do you think that's almost the first thing that a new manager needs to address, the back line and working as a unit and being more organised?
First and foremost, how that new manager is going to want to play. What's going to be the tactic?
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Chapter 8: What insights did Pep Guardiola share about his team's performance?
Are you going to put pressure high? Are you going to wait? Are you going to be a counter-attacking team? What are you going to do? We don't know. That goes after with the player that you're going to keep or buy in function of what and how you like to play. And I think that's very important. That's why we were saying it's better for the new manager to know when it's going to be
with that team to try to work that out early on. But yes, like I said, you know, it's worrying me to see how they defended today. And if you're the new manager looking at, well, we don't know, but if you're the new manager looking at that right now, you're kind of thinking that there's a lot of stuff to change and to do.
But again, it's difficult to talk about it because we don't know who it is and how he likes to play.
More reaction now from the Emirates. David Moyes with Jeff Shreves.
David, do you feel hard done by him? That feels nothing like a 4-1 defeat.
No, well, the last ten minutes it might have been, but I've got to say up until then I thought we were good for a point, we'd worked really hard, tried to contain them, and look, the young centre-half should head the ball away and it wouldn't have even got to 2-1, it was that easy, so why he was ducking the box, I've got no idea.
But look, we've all been young players getting into games and we're always going to make mistakes. The most important thing is you learn from your mistakes, you don't do it again and you understand how important it is. Did he offer an explanation? Did Joe Hart shout something and he misunderstood?
No, but even if Joe did, any centre-half and I was one of them, you know in there you can never let the ball go. The ball's in the middle of your goal and you're probably only six yards from your goal. You can never let the ball go. You deal with it and you argue about it after if he should have left it, but...
Look, the rules for any centre-halves have always been, I'm going to head it clear first and then I'll talk to you after. As you say, he's a young centre-half, he's learning the game. Is he distraught in the dressing room?
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