It was a clash of two teams desperate for a first win in the season as 19th and 20th placed Norwich City and Arsenal slugged it out on Saturday afternoon at the Emirates stadium.
Both teams had lost all three opening games of the campaign, losing scandalously with goal difference of -9 each, albeit, Norwich having found the back of the net once, Arsenal were yet to.
Mikel Arteta made a huge change in goal, starting summer arrival, Aaron Ramsdale in place of first choice, Bernd Leno, while also granting a debut to Takehiro Tomiyasu, who joined from Bologna on the last day of the summer transfer window. Daniel Farke on his end also gave a couple of youngsters their debut.
Not unexpectedly, Arsenal started like a house on fire and got the sniff of Norwich's goal in the early exchanges.
In the 10th minute, after Christos Tzolis played a one-two with Kieran Dowells to release a cross into the Arsenal box with no one to attack, the hosts counterattacked with Kieran Tierney finding Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang with a quick long ball and the Arsenal captain tried to catch Tim Krul off his line with a longe range effort, but he missed narrowly to the right side of the net.
Max Aarons helped the Canaries to another attack, this time, his cross was met by Kenny McClean, who could not guide his header frm the edge of the box on target.
Arsenal kept the high press and most possession, but as always, they were unable to materialize anything of this, lacking the cutting edge in the final third.
Their efforts almost paid off on the stroke of half time. A cross from Tierney was headed out by Brandon Williams, but only as far as Tomiyasu on the edge of the box, who attacked it with an acrobatic kick, which sailed just above Krul's goal. It would have been a debut goal to remember.
Arsenal eventually took the lead in funny fashion, six minutes after the hour mark. Nicolas Pepe saw his effort come off the bar and his follow up rebound also coming off the bar, before Aubameyang bundled it over line for Arsenal's first goal of the season. There was a long VAR check as Norwich players believed Aubameyang was offside, but the goal stood afterwards.
The visitors really didn't show any sign of grabbing an equalizer and Aubameyang almost doubled Arsenal's lead in the 83rd minute with a low strike which was kept out by the legs of Krul.
Krul was again on his toes to deny Emile Smith Rowe in the 87th minute, before the follow up by Bukayo Saka flashed just wide of the goal as Arsenal held on in what was a nervy finish.
Concluding Thoughts
It was a huge relief for Mikel Arteta, whose job is definitely under threat to bag his first three points of the season.
Although, they were not really convincing and perhaps, a game against Norwich is not enough to judge if they have turned the corner, it'd definitely give them respite going into the next fixtures.
Norwich have had their worst start to a league season, losing all of their four opening games and currently on a goal difference of - 10.
Daniel Farke will need to dig deep to help his boys out of this form as a continuous run of this kind of form could mean they're back in the championship in the same manner as their last campaign in the top flight.
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