Match Report: Arsenal 4-2 Leicester City

The Gunners prevail in a chaotic victory over the Foxes: 

Man of the Match: Gabriel Jesus (9.6/10)

Today's victory shows how Mikel Arteta has very clearly addressed the flaws from the win against Crystal Palace last week. The Gunners' played in a style perhaps only describable as "Structured Chaos", consistency troubled the Leicester defences, this time for the whole 90. 

The match started off with good football from both sides and saw a very good attempt from Wesley Fofana in the 5th minute. Loss of possession by Granit Xhaka due to a good tackle by Fofana saw Vardy thread a ball through to the French defender, only for Aaron Ramsdale to save it. Our right flank was uncharacteristically quiet but the lack of threat from the right was made up by a dominant and ruthless left wing performance by Gabriel Martinelli (who was, in my opinion, the second best player on the pitch). Martinelli made the 80 million-rated Wesley Fofana look like an amateur player by drawing him into mistakes and poor tackles and just generally winding him up. 

The 20th minute saw Granit Xhaka have his header hit the post after a beautiful cross from Bukayo Saka. Xhaka very visibly had a lot more freedom to go forward due to the assurance provided by Thomas Partey in the midfield. His style of play was very close to a box-to-box midfielder.

Arsenal's constant onslaught on Leicester finally came to fruition with a Gabriel Jesus wonder-goal at the 22nd minute. The move was started by Jesus who dribbled past Johnny Evans and played a delicate pass to Gabriel Martinelli. Gabi kept hold of the ball only to play it to Xhaka who played off a simple touch to Jesus, who send it flying into the top corner on the far post leaving Leicester's new number 1 Danny Ward no chance of saving it.

Jesus found himself scoring once again in the 35th minute when an in-swinging cross from Granit Xhaka was deflected off the head of Jamie Vardy and led to a simple header for Jesus. Arsenal and Leicester were equal in the share of possession throughout the game, but Jesus proved to be unplayable for the Leicester defence as he regular got in behind the Foxes and so nearly had the hattrick his performance deserved.

The 44th minute saw Leicester have a glimmer of hope as Jamie Vardy collided with the out coming Aaron Ramsdale, but the decision went to VAR and was rightly reversed.

The second half was better from the away side and witnessed an unfortunate own-goal by William Saliba, who so far had been having a solid game. I do believe him heading the ball was necessary as if he hadn't, it would have fallen straight to Vardy, who just does not miss a chance as good as that. After the own goal however, he was cheered on by a supportive crowd (to Mikel Arteta's surprise). One mistake right after the other saw Arsenal regain their 2 goal advantage as opposing keeper Ward, clumsily dropped the ball in the penalty area which saw Jesus assist Xhaka to score into an empty net.

A strong James Maddison strike saw Leicester once again close that 2 goal gap to 1 after smashing the ball into the far corner between the legs of Aaron Ramsdale. The Gunners however, reacted brilliantly with a sumptuous Gabriel Martinelli strike from the outside of the box into the bottom right corner with yet another Gabriel Jesus assist. The 50 million price for the Brazilian striker seems like a bargain after today's electric performance. 

The Gunners held on to secure the 4-2 victory against a capable, but lacklustre Leicester City side.

Final Thoughts:

• Martinelli is going to be a huge asset to this team going forward this season.
• Saliba will make mistakes, but he is a player who learns from his mistakes and is the future of this club's defence.
• Ødegaard although without any goal contributions this season, looked significantly sharper today than he did against Crystal Palace.
• With Partey giving a little defence aid, Granit Xhaka is more liberal with his runs into the box and can prove to be a vital part of the Arsenal 11.