EPL: Baptism of fire for Swansea’s Bob Bradley at Arsenal

For Bob Bradley, the first American manager to be employed in the Premier League, it was a baptism of fire indeed.

Swansea manager Bob Bradley shouts instructions during his side’s 3-2 defeat to Arsenal.

For Bob Bradley, the first American manager to be employed in the Premier League, a baptism of fire indeed and so very nearly a dramatic and positive surprise.

Bradley was for five years in charge of the US international team, taking them to the World Cup finals. His son is one of the leading American footballers of his time.

When Arsenal cruised into a 2-0 lead having had vastly the balance of the play against Bradley’s Swansea team at the Emirates stadium, there seemed little chance of the visitors repeating a 3-2 victory they had here the previous season.

But strangely inept defending from the home side brought Swansea back into the game and in the second half, when Bradley pushed the flying and splendidly elusive Modou Barrow up the right touchline into attack, Arsenal never looked in solid command.

Long-legged, technically adroit and gifted with exceptional pace, Barrow, Gambian-born and brought up in Sweden, played ducks and drakes with the hapless Arsenal left-back Nacho Monreal. On 70 minutes, a reckless foul on Barrow by Granit Xhaka led very properly to the Swiss international being sent off, though the fans in their mindlessness continued to boo Barrow until he was forced off limping.

Arsenal could have won far more easily were it not for the profligacy of Theo Walcott, switched from right to left in the second half, who was guilty of one miss after another. Dominating the early play, opposed only by the Icelander Gylfi Sigurdsson in the visiting attack, Arsenal almost predictably went ahead on 26 minutes. The goal was a scrappy one. Hector Bellerin headed the ball into the middle where it hit Jordi Amat, whose hesitation proved fatal, Walcott nipping in to score.

Seven minutes later, Arsenal had scored again. Santi Cazorla’s left-wing corner hit Sigurdsson, facing his own goal, enabling Walcott to pivot and score again.

That may have seemed to be that for Swansea. Instead on 38 minutes they pulled a goal back thanks to a dreadful error by the doomed Xhaka, enabling Sigurdsson to pilfer the ball from him and go on to score with a curling left-foot shot.

The second half was packed with incident. On 57 minutes a cross by Alexis Sanchez from the right, slack marking by Swansea, and a powerful volley by Mesut Ozil, celebrating his 28th birthday, put Arsenal further ahead. That, however, was by no means that. On 66 minutes, Barrow went past Monreal with embarrassing ease, and crossed for Borja Baston to slot home.

On 70 minutes Xhaka was properly expelled by Jon Moss after his foul on Barrow. Somewhat surprisingly, Bradley said of Barrow: “I think he is just scratching the surface when he goes inside. When he does stay inside, what kind of runs can he make? I’ve already told him I’m not going to be easy on him.”

Yet surely the essence of Barrow’s major contribution to this match was that in the second half Bradley pushed him forward where he could torment the Arsenal defence. Bradley added: “I like this group. It’s really nice to come in and see their response.

“We can still look at some things that happened on the field today and say that’s the kind of football we want to see.”

He added: “We showed too much respect. At 3-1 we were slow to push out. But again, I think we kept at it and nobody will go home happy, there’s a chance we can be a really good team, we got a taste of what it feels like when you’re there. You can have an idea of what to expect.”

Arsene Wenger felt, as managers will in such circumstances, that Xhaka’s red card was somewhat harsh. “I think Barrow made a lot of it as well, the referee saw a bad tackle and you had to respect that,” Wenger said.

“Theo Walcott could have had a hat-trick, and even four.”

And Ozil? “He’s one of the most dangerous players to predict when he hits the ball,” he added.

The longer the game went on, the more packed it was with incident and error. On 58 minutes, Ozil made Walcott a concrete chance but his inadequate shot was saved by ex-Arsenal goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski. But the more Barrow saw of the ball, the less compact and confident the Gunners looked.

To give them their due, Arsenal’s 10 men scorned falling back on defence and broke whenever they could, despite being frequently frustrated by an offside flag. On 76 minutes, from a Routledge cross, Barrow used his head rather than his legs on a ball which Petr Cech held.

Bellerin had a shot taken by Fabianski late on before in stoppage time Walcott squandered yet another great opportunity.

The Sunday Times