Huddersfield 1-2 Arsenal: no Aubameyang, Ramsey or Ozil – but the gunners find the way to win to end the blues of the year

Arsenal fans feared the worst when the team's bus disgorged their players in front of John Smith's Stadium and no sign Aaron Ramsey, Granite Xhaka, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang or Mesut Ozil was present.

The outside training has been so bad under Unai Emery in recent weeks that the Gunners could have benefited from an extra boost even against the worst team in the league.

Alas, this game happened too early for Ramsey and Xhaka – who suffer from knee and groin injuries respectively – while Aubameyang and Ozil were dismissed due to illness.

The latter has played only 13 of the 26 league games of Arsenal this season, a surprisingly low figure given the investment in the contract of the German last year.

In addition, he has not participated in any match in which Arsenal has moved to a three-on-five formation, with the exception of a 20-minute spell as a substitute in Southampton.

Here, Emery again played with his three-player backline, which was a feature of their game under other circumstances, such as Bournemouth, Manchester United, Southampton and West Ham, as well as against Huddersfield in December when they claimed the three points.

The last time Arsenal won was in Bournemouth and the results have since been mixed. However, Emery clearly sees the merit of this system and persists in its persistence.

The main benefit of training like this is the space it leaves behind. While Hector Bellerin is injured, Ainsley Maitland-Niles is more than able to substitute right. The local prospect had to deal with his own injuries, but he was back in training and was accomplished.

Sead Kolasinac, who gave the first goal to Alex Iwobi, was on the other side.

The Nigerian was on a two-man refueling line from Alexandre Lacazette alongside Henrikh Mkhitaryan, back in the country, fit again after a foot injury.

And these two people, as well as Maitland-Niles, have combined to create the second. The Lacazette movement allowed him to have enough space inside the area and to regain his 10th league goal.

There must have been moments of frustration for Emery, who was sometimes visibly angry at the choices his players made in the last third. However, the goals were good at the beginning and end of the first half, which should please the Spaniard.

He is not satisfied with the amount of the ball Huddersfield enjoys and, indeed, for the second half, his team got the second best performance. Under Jan Siewert, the Terriers have a whole other team than under David Wagner. They are trying to have more hand hold than the opposition and are pressuring.

This meant that Arsenal was under pressure for spells in the game, with Huddersfield getting more shots and more territory than expected, facing one of the top six teams. In the end, they had more pbades than Arsenal, more territory and more shots on goal.

Bernd Leno was rebadured when he would have needed to rest until the injury, when Adama Diakhaby mocked the house and ended Arsenal's hope of a successful one. first blank white of the season.

There were also brave and brave defenders in the room of the evil Shkodran Mustafi and the returning captain, Laurent Koscielny.

Fortunately for Arsenal, there is a lack of calm in that the Huddersfield attack and a more confident team in front of goal would have probably taken something from the match.

This is a team that has scored only six goals at home in the league and took only five points in front of their own fans.

Nevertheless, this victory means that an Arsenal team that has been in an uneven form is still in the top four. They finished fifth with this win and will stay there at least until Chelsea's challenge at Manchester City on Sunday.

An away match against the champions was a bridge too far for Emery and Arsenal last week; a defeat that left the fans jaded and questioning the direction taken by the club.

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Huddersfield is the other end of the spectrum of the Premier League and more important challenges are ahead for Arsenal. What will not please the manager or the fans is the inability to kill the match.

However, given that they have been deprived of key players due to injuries and illnesses and that they are burdened by a rather bad recent record on the outside, Arsenal will nevertheless enthusiastically accept this shot of thumb, especially with winnable home games against Southampton and Bournemouth.

They were good without being tall; functional without being fluid. But at this stage of the season, and the players in short supply, they will take everything they can get.