Arsenal's hopes of catching up with the top four suffered a major set back thanks to an impressive display from Swansea city and a man of the match performance from Nathan Dyer in a thrilling match at the Liberty Stadium.
The Gunners took just over four minutes to take the lead when in form Robin van Perise was on the end of a pin point pass from Andrey Arshavin. The captain fired his right foot shot past Vorm at the near post, shrugging off defender Steven Caulker.
But from this moment on Swansea found their feet and grew in confidence as the game went on. With several changes to the team including Miquel and Djourou at full backs and Benayoun in central midfield, there was always a concern that Arsenal wouldn't maintain this lead. It was surprisingly the Wales captain, Aaron Ramsey who was at fault for the first goal. Ramsey challenged for the ball against Dyer in the box, catching the back of his ankle. At first glance it seemed a stone cold penalty, but after several replays it seemed more like Ramsey was fouled and a costless kick to the away side. Sinclair put it away in the bottom corner.
As the game continued the Arsenal full backs were struggling with wide men Nathan Dyer and Scott Sinclair. The Swans philosophy of costless passing and attacking play nearly got them in to trouble however when Van Persie was put through on goal, but Vorm spread himself well blocking the Dutch international's finish.
In the second half Joe Allen was passing well in midfield and eventually managed to steal the ball from Aaron Ramsey, putting Dyer in space. He fired the ball into the top corner past Szczesny putting his side in the lead. Wenger responded to this by bringing on Thierry Henry hoping he could get Arsenal out of trouble once again. But Walcott was the one who came to the rescue, on the 68th minute with a brilliant finish dinking it over the goalie from a long range through ball by Djourou. Unbelievably though immediately from the re-start Swansea regained possession and Sigurdsson's pass caught the defence unaware and Graham fired home to put the home side ahead once again.
For the last 20 minutes of the game Arsenal showed good signs of equalising, with substitutes Oxlade-Chamberlain causing some problems and Rosicky firing from long range, but it proved to be Swansea's day. Arsenal remain in in 5th place while the Swans move up into the top half of the table. January is always a very testing time of year for most teams, and it seems that squad size and depth may be an issue for the London side, especially while the Africa Cup of Nations is on. It seems they need to look past the nostalgia of Henry returning and resolve the defence crisis they're having with injuries and available players.