Arsenal 2 Leicester 1
Lucky Arsenal managed to beat 10 men at the death.
Wengers subs worked out better than Ranieri’s subs
This had been billed as a season-defining match.
For the first 30, Arsenal played with terrific concentration and dominated with sharp and accurate passing.
There was a flurry of action in 15 as Kasper Schmeichel raced out of his box to clear a counter-attack, and then an Albrighton cross allowed Vardy a downward header. But Petr Cech made a beautiful low save
The opportunist striker, a reflex player, he saw Monreal hang his leg out just inside the box, fell over him and won a penalty.
Vardy took the kick himself and smashed it past Cech for 0-1 in 45.
A hammer blow for Arsenal, who had been the better side in the first half.
Eventually, in the 95th minute, Arsenal beat Leicester 2-1 with a header by sub Danny Welbeck, which followed an equaliser by sub Theo Walcott. Giroud provided a tidy knockdown for Walcott to level it in 70 and Ozil’s laser-guided free-kick gave Welbeck his chance of glory deep into stoppage time.
Ranieri had blown it in 58 by taking off Mahrez and bringing on big Wasilewski, a hammer-thrower who lumbered on to make the clumsy foul that allowed Ozil to pinpoint his 17th assist of the season.
As the three Arsenal players went for the Ozil’s free-kick, Welbeck just managed a neat glance off the top of his head into the top corner in the 95th minute of Fergie time. He must have thought he was in heaven… or Old Trafford.
After a game in which Sanchez and Ramsey could not hit a barn door, Arsenal are third on goal difference, just behind Spurs, who beat Manchester City, as I expected and predicted.
The Leicester victory turned on one of the harshest second yellow cards I’ve seen.
Second half, Danny Simpson blocked Alexis Sanchez clumsily in an ambiguous situation on the left.
Free kick or yellow card? Yellow!
A few minutes later, Giroud collapsed when Simpson touched him, trying to get Simpson sent off. And it worked. That was a free-kick, maybe. But Atkinson produced a second yellow and that, more than anything else, decided the game.
Arsenal beat 10 men, just. It was very dramatic.
They will definitely need Danny Welbeck against Spurs.