Laudrup: Small period cost us

Swans boss Michael Laudrup says a ten-minute dip in performance cost his side the chance of picking up points at home to Arsenal.

The Gunners extended their away win run to 12 games in all competitions, after beating the Swans 2-1 at the Liberty Stadium.

After a tight first-half that saw both sides cancel each other out, Serge Gnabry and Aaron Ramsey got the second-half goals that secured the win for the visitors.

With ten minutes to go, Ben Davies managed to claw one back for the home side, giving the Swans hope of a late equaliser.

But despite late pressure, Arsenal managed to hold out to claim all three points.

And Laudrup said that, after a close first half, defending too deep early on in the second forty-five allowed Arsenal to take advantage.

"I think for the first forty-five minutes, it was very tight with both teams at the same level and very few chances," said Laudrup.

"We did well. The battle in midfield was the most important thing. I wanted to keep our back four high, and we did that in the first-half.

"Then in the second-half, we started a little too deep for the first goal.

"When you play against players at this level and defend so deep, one or two quality passes can create a chance."

Soon after Gnabry opened the scoring, Ramsey doubled Arsenal's lead, which meant the Swans had a mountain to climb to get back on terms.

And Laudrup said that it was his players' eagerness to go forward, in search of an equaliser, which caused them to fall two behind.

"The only thing I'm disappointed about is that, after the first goal, we lost our positioning on the pitch," he explained.

"I think the players wanted to go forward immediately to get the equaliser, but when you do that, you leave too much space for the counter-attack.

"And when they have players like Ozil, Wilshere and Ramsey, you can have problems.

"After that, we recovered composure and dominated for the rest of the game.

"But we were punished today by a very small period, and it was enough for them to win."

Despite the loss, Michael Laudrup said he was pleased with the performance of Swansea's goal-scoring left back Ben Davies.

"It was great to see. He is a young player who is still coming forward and gaining experience.

"He's a good boy, who is very intelligent as well. It's good to see players like that."

Meanwhile, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger was delighted to pick up three more away points from what he felt was a difficult game for his side.

"The first half was quite difficult," said the French manager. "Swansea played well; they were better than us. We didn't play with enough purpose.

"In the second half, we played in a more compact way, and took advantage every time we won the ball.

"We did hang on a little bit in the last fifteen minutes, but, overall, I felt we deserved to win the game."