Danny’s late winner takes victory streak to 11 in a row

AFTER recent reminders of the Arsene Wenger era, Arsenal produced a George Graham-style win in Lisbon.

The famous ‘1-0 to the Arsenal’ chant from Graham’s days rang out in the away end after Danny Welbeck’s late strike earned Unai Emery’s men an 11th successive victory.

Unlike some of the wins in that impressive sequence, when Arsenal have produced moments that brought back memories of the best times under Wenger, this was not an occasion when they were at their fluent best.

This was a hard-fought success – and at times a hard watch.

Just as Granit Xhaka warned ahead of kick-off, it is not easy for Arsenal to score two or three goals every game as they have been doing since their opening day defeat to Manchester City.

But in Lisbon, one from Welbeck was enough to keep their winning run going, earn their first ever victory in Portugal at the seventh attempt and see them put one foot in the knockout stages after winning their opening three Group E games.

The big gaps in the stands might have brought back memories of the Emirates during the final stages of Wenger’s reign. But the stay-aways was a relieved man when he got away with tugging on Fredy Montero’s shirt as the Sporting striker threatened to run through on goal.

But it was much more encouraging for Arsenal after the break. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang tested Riberio twice and Welbeck was denied a certain goal by Andre Pinto’s last ditch block.

Arsenal continued to knock on the door and Welbeck had a header chalked off after he was adjudged to have climbed on the back of Bruno Gaspar in order to reach Stephan Lichtsteiner’s cross.

But there was nothing wrong in the

77th minute after he latched onto sub Lucas Torreira’s through ball that ex-Liverpool defender Sebastian Coates failed to cut out to fire past Ribeiro.

SPORTING (4-3-3): Ribeiro; Ristovski (Gaspar 45), Pinto, Coates, Acuna; Battaglia, Petrovic, Gudelj (Cabral 71); Nani (Diaby 87), Montero, Fernandes. Subs: Salin, Mane, Mathieu, Luis.

ARSENAL (4-3-3): Leno; Lichtsteiner, Sokratis, Holding, Xhaka; Elneny (Torreira

58), Guendouzi 7, Ramsey; Mkhitaryan, Aubameyang (Iwobi 86), Welbeck (Lacazette

81). Subs: Martinez, Ozil, Mustafi, Jenkinson.

Referee: Damir Skomina (Slovenia).