Arsenal have bounced back from last weekends disappointment at the Etihad with a routine victory over Huddersfield Town.
First-half strikes from Alex Iwobi as well as Alexandre Lacazette proved enough to see the Gunners take all three points back to London.
Story of the match
In the opening stages of the game, it was the home side, perhaps surprisingly, on top.
Adama Diakhaby and Tommy Smith were fancying their chances up against Nacho Monreal on Town’s right flank, only adding to the already fantastic atmosphere inside the John Smith’s Stadium.
The first big chance of the game then fell to Lacazette down the other end. Iwobi picked out the Frenchman, who looked certain to fire at stand-in ‘keeper Ben Hamer, before Terence Kongolo’s terrific sliding challenge nabbed the ball away from the Gunners’ number nine.
Arsenal then went on to dominate large amounts of possession, before getting their reward.
Saed Kolisinac flew down the left flank, with no Huddersfield challenge allowing him to whip the ball into the back post where Iwobi appeared, unmarked, to volley home the opener.
The shot did take a slight deflection off Kongolo, although Hamer really should’ve been stopping the tame effort which trickled in at the near post.
The reaction from the home side was impressive, not letting their heads drop.
Aaron Mooy caused a few issues for Unai Emery’s backline with his set pieces, whilst Jason Puncheon also remained busy in and around the box.
With the Terriers well in the game just before half-time, Arsenal struck a second.
All of Huddersfield hard work was undone by a couple of simple passes. Henrikh Mkhitaryan played the ball out wide to Ainsley Maitland-Niles, before the young winger crossed into the unmarked Lacazette, who tapped home from six yards.
The almost certain relegation-bound side competed toe-to-toe with Arsenal for the majority of the first-half, although lapses in concentration at the back cost them on two occasions.
Into the second-half, the Terriers fired out of the blocks.
Straight from kick-off, the home side flew forward down both flanks, with Bernd Leno having to make a smart save to deny Diakhaby in the opening minutes.
Arsenal dealt well with the threat following this early onslaught and remained happy to allow Huddersfield to have possession whilst they sat on their two-goal lead.
Into the last 20 minutes, the result seemed almost a foregone conclusion - Arsenal happy to look to hit Jan Siewert's side on the counter, whilst Town just didn't look to have the ability to cause the Gunners any real problems.
Substitute Laurent Depoitre fired wide with 10 minutes to play before Kolasinac bundled the ball into the back of his own net in injury time. It proved too little too late as Arsenal held on in the last few seconds for all three points.
Takeaways from the match
Terriers lack bite
Throughout the game Huddersfield had plenty of the ball, their issue is that very little was done with it.
Elias Kachunga looked frustrated whilst leading the Terriers line, and the few half-chances that he had came from set-pieces, in which he was left no time or space.
The West Yorkshire clubs top scorer all season is Matthias ‘Zanka’ Jorgensen, who leads the charts with just three goals, from centre-back, all season.
It is most likely Huddersfield will go down, and in the Championship they will have to improve massively on these numbers in order to have any chance of bouncing back.
Arsenal well in top four race
For large parts today, Arsenal were poor, and in recent times their performances away from home have been their main problem.
It was a game that the Gunners were expected to win today, although if they can continue to get points on the board away from the Emirates, regardless to performances, between now and May, they will have a great chance of snatching fourth spot ahead of Chelsea and Manchester United.