EPL week 9 review: Arsenal win ten on the bounce after taking care of the Foxes

The English Premier League sends Week 9 to the graveyard after a Mesut Özil inspired Arsenal makes it ten on the trot with a 3-1 win against Leicester City during Monday Night Football.

Arsenal didn’t have the best of starts to the season.

Two games.

Two defeats.

Then again, they did face Man City and Chelsea, champions of the two past seasons.

Unai Emery’s side has bounced back brilliantly though with ten consecutive wins in all competitions after beating Leicester City on Monday night. Arsenal hasn’t managed a run like that since 2007. They may have begun the 2018/19 Premier League season like a pebble, but they are a rolling stone, now, for sure.

That stone needed a significant push. Leicester could have put the game to bed by the time the fans were standing in rivers of piss waiting for their cups of Bovril and chicken pie.

Kelechi Iheanacho saw a curler turned beyond the post by Bernd Leno, and in the 18th minute, Leicester should have had a penalty when Rob Holding handled the ball when tussling for a header in the box. Chris Kavanagh didn’t think so. The Premier League is too cool for VAR. Leicester lost the opportunity to score from 10-yards as a result.

James Maddison has enjoyed a tremendous start to the season, and it was his delivery from a free kick that landed on the head of Harry Maguire, only for Leno to make an excellent save to deny the big England centre back.

Then on the half-hour mark, Leicester took the lead, when Ben Chilwell burst into the box and saw his shot deflected off the boot of Hector Bellerín to wrong-foot Leno and give the Foxes a deserved lead.

And then Arsenal got their shit together.

Özil grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck and didn’t let go until the final whistle blew. The German star was Napoleon like in his imperiousness, marching around the field on horseback, rallying the troops.

Then with half-time looming like a lemon, the Arsenal captain led a counter-attack, racing up the centre of the field after a Leicester attack broke down. Özil found Bellerin on the right; the Spaniard shifted it back from whence it came, and Özil found the bottom of the net with a sweet finish. It was Özil’s 30th Premier League goal, more than any other German in the history of the competition.

Leicester was still in it though and should have retaken the lead when Wilfred N’Didi nearly snapped the crossbar in half with a close-range header before Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang bagged a brace to take all three points.

The Gabonese forward gave Arsenal the lead in the 63rd minute; on hand to finish a scintillating move between Özil and Bellerín, and three minutes later he had his second after a classic Arsenal goal. Bellerín was once again involved, rampaging down the right. The Spaniard fired a ball to Özil who let the pace of the ball do the work with an exquisite dummy, Alexandre Lacazatte fed the ball quickly to the German, who chipped it over the onrushing Kasper Schmeichel, and Aubameyang was on hand to score his 16th goal in 21 Premier League appearances.

The defeat means Leicester has not won at Arsenal in 26 visits, losing 20 of those. Arsenal move above arch-rivals Spurs into fourth place on goal difference.

Arsenal faces Sporting Lisbon in the Europa Cup on Thursday before taking on Crystal Palace over the weekend. Leicester plays West Ham.

Here are the Week 9 fixtures in full:

Fixtures in Full

Chelsea 2 v 2 Man Utd
West Ham 0 v 1 Spurs
Newcastle 0 v 1 Brighton
Bournemouth 0 v 0 Southampton
Cardiff 4 v 2 Fulham
Wolves 0 v 2 Watford
Man City 5 v 0 Burnley
Huddersfield 0 v 1 Liverpool
Everton 2 v 0 Crystal Palace
Arsenal 3 v 1 Leicester

Premier League Table

1. Man City – 23
2. Liverpool – 23
3. Chelsea – 21
4. Arsenal – 21
5. Spurs – 21
6. Bournemouth – 17
7. Watford – 16
8. Everton – 15
9. Wolves – 15
10. Man Utd – 14
11. Leicester – 12
12. Brighton – 11
13. Burnley – 8
14. West Ham – 7
15. Crystal Palace – 7
16. Southampton – 5
17. Cardiff – 5
18. Fulham – 5
19. Huddersfield – 3
20. Newcastle- 2