Arsenal Starts the 2017/18 EPL Season With A Seven-Goal Thriller Win Against Leicester City.
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Result: Arsenal 4-3 Leicester City
Date: 11 August 2017
Venue: Emirates Stadium
Arsenal began the Premier League season on a high after playing out a very thrilling seven-goal thriller against a very solid opposition in Leicester City. The Gunners took the lead early in the first half when Elneny’s pinpoint cross found the head of new-boy Lacazette who was able to direct a fine header into the far corner beyond the keeper’s reach. But this lead won’t last for long as Leicester found the equalizer just two minutes after the opening goal; a very fine cross from the brilliant Fuchs was not dealt with well by the Arsenal defense, Maguire was able to flick a header back to the 6-yard box and Okazaki was able to beat Xhaka in the air (rather surprisingly) and head into an empty net thanks to Cech’s misreading the flight of the ball.
The Gunners went behind in the game for the first time when a poor pass from Xhaka was intercepted by Albrighton and Leicester were able to hit Arsenal on a quick counter. A cross from deep was well finished by Vardy who continued his fine form against Arsenal. Arsenal were able to find the much-needed equalizer just before the half time break, they scored with virtually the last kick of the game when Lacazette put the ball in the 6-yard box, and the impressive Kolasinac was able to latch onto it and showed great composure to square the ball to Welbeck who tapped it in easily to tie the score at 2-2 just before the break.
Leicester restored their lead once more just 10 minutes into the second half when Vardy lost his marker and was able to direct a wonderful header into the back of the net from Mahrez corner. After this goal, it seemed all hope was lost for the Gunners and the opening day home defeat will continue this season. Wenger then made the substitutions that will end up turning this game on its head. He made a double sub, bringing in Giroud and Ramsey to replace Welbeck and Elneny respectively. The Gunners push for an equalizer finally came in the 83rd minute when Aaron Ramsey was able to smash a fine finish into the net after an equally fine pass from Xhaka. Just 3 minutes later, Xhaka will turn provider for the winning goal when his corner was met with a fine header by Giroud who smashed the ball off the bar and over the line to the delight of all Arsenal fans.
Arsene Wenger’s side had won just one of their last six Premier League openers before the game on Friday.
Arsenal Starting XI
Petr Cech; Nacho Monreal, Saed Kolasinac, Rob Holding; Hector Bellerin, Granit Xhaka, Mohamed Elneny, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain; Danny Welbeck, Mesut Ozil; Alexandre Lacazette
Subs
David Ospina, Francis Coquelin, Shkodran Mustafi, Alex Iwobi, Aaron Ramsey, Theo Walcott, Olivier Giroud.
Leicester Starting XI
Kasper Schmeichel; Christian Fuchs, Harry Maguire, Wes Morgan, Danny Simpson; Wilfred Ndidi, Matty James, Marc Albrighton, Riyad Mahrez; Jamie Vardy, Shinji Okazaki.
Subs
Ben Hamer, Andy King, Islam Slimani, Ben Chiwell, Demarai Gray, Daniel Amartey, Kelechi Iheanacho.
Wow, I wish them being more stable during the whole season
COYG!! what a great game to start the season with, great both for the neutral and for us gooners!
A very great game indeed.
Gameweek 1 of the new EPL Season was just amazing with lots of goals scored. I thought Manchester United would end the streak of the big teams scoring so much, but they ended up scoring 4!
Amazing!
Check out my soccer contest for the match "Real Madrid vs FC Barcelona"
A great game! Lacazette delivered early, and once again Arsenal were let down by their lackadaisical defense. Kudos to Leicester though, they will be a force again this season, and Vardy shows again why Arsenal tried desperately to sign him last year!
I think other title contenders need to thank Arsenal for helping dampen the morale of the Leicester players early on, because if they won that game, they would have left with that spirit that helped them win the league two season's ago.
Leicester played really well, I feel Shakespeare made the wrong substitutions.
That was a perfect match for a new season to start with!
Awesome stuff! Loving all the color in this post. Things are looking so awesome :)
amazing post...
Great game. We were punished every time Leicester had a chance on goal but we showed great spirit to rally back and nick the game. Very worrying that we conceded 3 goals but a win is a win and we needed that result to get to confidence up for what will be a very testing first 6 games. Lacazette looks class, Giroud looks determined to stake his claim in the squad. With Sanchez still to come back our attacking options look really good. I'm looking forward to the Stoke game, I think there will be lots of goals in that one as well. COYG!!
soccer is brilliant game :) and yeah it requires high stamina xD
Hard fought victory. Didnt win easily. Good job Leicester. Could have done better if more focus was on the defence.