#3 A game of fine margins
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While at the end of the game the possession stats were heavily skewed towards Arsenal, it does not tell the complete story. Arsene Wenger’s side did have most of the ball but it was the newly promoted side that had the better chances.
Be it Gaston Ramirez’s free-kick that cannoned off the crossbar in the first half or his point-blank header that was directed straight at Cech. Be it Alexis Sanchez’s rasping drive that was saved by a diving Victor Valdes or Mesut Ozil’s poke in injury tiime – that was correctly ruled out for offside.
Be it Adama Traore’s jinxing runs from his own half to the crunching tackles by Hector Bellerin and Laurent Koscielny that denied their opposition clear goalscoring chances, the result was anything but a fair reflection of what the audience had witnessed for 90 plus minutes. Arsenal had dominated and Middlesbrough had refused to give in and if any one of the chances mentioned above were slightly here or there we might be looking forward at a different result.
