Arsenal leap into third place with a win over Norwich

Saturday, April 13th 2013

Arsenal leap into 3rd place in the Premier League as they recover from an early second half goal from Norwich.

As critical as the game was to Arsenal, it started off quite slow and dreary as frustrations grew more with chances missed by the forerunners. The Gunners were then taken by shock when Norwich took the lead, roughly 11 minutes into the second half, with a free-kick, re-awakening the infamous set-piece ghost that torments The Arsenal.

The changing point came when the game commenced with the appearance to Walcott and Podolski, both brought onto the field replacing Wilshere and Gervinho. The effect was almost instant. The pace of the game changed, the crowd were brought back to life. The revived Arsenal saw numerous chances, the nearest coming from Podolski smashed a shot that hit the crossbar having seen a slight deflection of the Norwich keeper.

Though on the front-foot, Arsenal still struggled slightly to break-through a solid Norwich defence.

Oxlade-Chamberlain came on in the 80th minute. He provided a superb assist, pulling the ball back on the main area from the byline offering Giroud the easy job of a tap-in to take a 2-1 lead. The first Arsenal goal came from a penalty after what appeared to be Giroud being pulled down in the box, which he then converted to pull Arsenal back in to the game. The game was sealed with a well struck ball into the net from Podolski.

Arsenal climb up to third in the table, with Chelsea 1 point and a game in hand, and Spurs also a single point behind.