Arsenal ease past under-strength Leicester for fifth win in succession
Arsenal remain a team with flaws but those weaknesses are being well hidden by their growing number of strengths, and Mikel Arteta’s side are now developing a habit for winning that stands them apart from the other contenders for the Premier League’s top four.
This latest victory was Arsenal’s fifth in a row, a run of consistency that currently seems beyond the reach of both Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United. While their rivals for a Champions League place are veering from one drama to the next, Arsenal are playing with a calm sense of purpose, control and menace.
Admittedly there are much tougher tests to come than this meeting with an under-strength Leicester City, who were without regular Arsenal-slayer Jamie Vardy. On Wednesday the Emirates Stadium plays host to Liverpool, before Arteta and his players travel to face Aston Villa next weekend.
This is a potentially defining week, then, and Arsenal could hardly have asked for more from their latest showing. There was a rare goal for Alexandre Lacazette, who struck for the first time since Boxing Day, and another masterful midfield performance from the exceptional Thomas Partey.
Arsenal are a settled side, playing in a system that every player fully understands. Can the same be said of other contenders for the top four? On the evidence of recent weeks, Arsenal stand alone in that regard. They were certainly playing a different game here to Leicester, who looked for all the world like a mid-table team that had decided to prioritise Europe over the Premier League.
The passing patterns of Arsenal’s midfield were dizzying at times for the visitors, with Martin Odegaard and Partey both playing one step ahead of their opponents, as if they had seen a few seconds into the future. Aside from one brief but impressive spell in the first half, when Harvey Barnes brought the best out of Ramsdale, Leicester seemed to be second to every ball.
A recent tweak to Arsenal’s midfield seems to have brought the best out of Partey, who now operates as a lone holding player while Granit Xhaka has more freedom to roam forward. Partey seems happier with more players in front of him, and his performances over the past few games resulted in him being named Arsenal’s player of the month for February.
There was no better way for the Ghanaian to celebrate than to score the opener here, as Leicester’s weakness at set pieces was once again exposed. It has been a constant problem for Brendan Rodgers this season, and one he has evidently not yet been able to solve. Partey met Gabriel Martinelli’s corner at the near post before thumping his header beyond Kasper Schmeichel.
Partey has spent much of his Arsenal career trying to score from long-range, to comical effect at times. It is curious, then, that both of his goals for the club have been headers from set pieces. Nothing will stop him from trying to score that elusive screamer, though, and he soon hit the top of the post with a curling effort from the edge of the box.
With this game coming between European ties against Rennes, Rodgers had pulled both Youri Tielemans and Wilfred Ndidi from his starting lineup. To the surprise of no one, Leicester were not any better for it.
They did, however, catch their breaths after the early onslaught and cause a few problems before the break. Ramsdale twice denied Barnes, first with a smothering stop and then with a spectacular dive that brought the home crowd to its feet. On the touchline, Rodgers simply mouthed “wow” as Ramsdale somehow turned the header past the post.
On such moments are Premier League matches decided, and Arsenal went on to double their lead from the spot just a few minutes after the restart. It was a painfully long wait for the officials to decide whether Caglar Soyuncu had handled Partey’s header, with referee Anthony Taylor eventually checking the pitchside monitor before awarding the penalty, but Lacazette was not distracted by the delay. After a stuttered run up, he finished high into the top corner.
Leicester’s heads now dropped, and Arsenal could play the remainder of the game in relative comfort. There were flourishes from Odegaard and Bukayo Saka, and a glimpse of goal for Emile Smith Rowe, but every player on the pitch seemed to know that the job had been done and the points had been sealed.
