Robbie Brady’s man of the match showing helps Norwich hold Arsenal

Norwich 1 Arsenal 1

This was another one of those days for Arsenal. They are the ones when so much goes wrong for them and they make it difficult to predict with any certainty that they can end their 12-year wait for the Premier League title.

Arsène Wenger’s team had bossed the opening 40 minutes or so and, as they led through Mesut Özil’s fourth goal of the season, the path to the three points looked clear enough. But they suffered a mad few moments before the interval, when an error from the substitute, Gabriel, enabled Lewis Grabban to equalise and Wes Hoolahan should have put Norwich City 2-1 in front.

Arsenal were the happier to hear the final whistle. The home team finished the stronger and they had a couple of chances when the winning goal looked within reach. This was a tonic for them, after a run of five defeats in six league games and, on a personal level, for Grabban.

It was his first start in the league since he went AWOL before Norwich’s Capital One Cup tie at Rotherham United on 25 August, as he tried to force a transfer to Bournemouth. He tucked his first goal of the season tidily past Petr Cech.

For Arsenal, the dropped points were only a part of it. They lost two of their star players to muscular injuries – Laurent Koscielny and Alexis Sánchez – and there will be flutters until the prognosis on both of them is known. It did not look good for either of them. Santi Cazorla, who was booked for diving in the 54th minute, also took a heavy knock to the knee.

After last weekend’s 2-1 loss at West Bromwich Albion, when Wenger said that everything had gone wrong, this was another setback. It had emerged before the game that Kieran Gibbs had been ruled out with a calf problem and Koscielny lasted only eight minutes.

The centre-half felt a spasm in his lower back and, after a few minutes of treatment, when he was in obvious discomfort, Wenger had to replace him with Gabriel. But things went from bad to worse when Sánchez’s right hamstring twanged in the 59th minute. He knew immediately that it was a bad one.

Wenger had welcomed back Aaron Ramsey into the starting lineup and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain as a substitute after muscular issues. It was two steps forward and three steps back.

Arsenal were the better team for the bulk of the first half and they had advertised the opening goal. Norwich were complicit in it, John Ruddy dragging a clearance that put Gary O’Neil in trouble and the Norwich captain had his pocket picked by Sánchez.

But it was the Arsenal forward’s injection of drive and directness that marked the goal. Sánchez’s smart diagonal pass ushered in Özil and, when Ruddy rushed from his line, the German dinked a cool finish inside the far corner.

With Nacho Monreal prominent in an attacking sense on the left, Arsenal had created chances before the goal. The left-back's low cross set up Özil in the 17th minute but he pulled his shot, the ball ballooning off Sébastien Bassong and out for a corner while Olivier Giroud flicked wide from another Monreal cross. Sánchez also worked Ruddy following Cazorla's burst and pass.

Cech had been a virtual bystander until the 42nd minute, when he had to dive to his left to beat away Robbie Brady’s curler but, moments later, he was picking the ball out of his net. And it could have been worse for him and Arsenal before the interval.

Norwich’s equaliser was fired by Brady, who got away from Ramsey and rolled a pass up to Grabban. But Gabriel erred when he tried to step up and intercept, rather than hold his ground and, when Grabban rolled him, the chance suddenly opened up. Grabban took a touch before finishing low past Cech.

Arsenal were scrambled and Norwich ought to have taken the lead in first-half injury-time. Andre Wisdom belted over a cross from the right and when Héctor Bellerín stopped, Hoolahan was all alone, beyond the far post.

The chance was not as easy as it looked; the ball was coming at pace and it had to be taken on first-time. With Cech out of the picture, Hoolahan simply needed to hit the target. He could not.

Arsenal’s problems extended to coming-togethers with the advertising hoardings and hidden traps around the perimeter of the pitch. Özil, Sánchez and Ramsey all went into one or the other, with Sánchez feeling that he was pushed into the camera pit by halfway by Ryan Bennett.

If only that had been the extent of it for him. When Sánchez burst towards a ball inside the area, with Bennett coming across to challenge, he pulled up dramatically and shot his hand back to the hamstring. As he sat forlornly, Sánchez made the signal that something had torn. The manner in which he limped off, very slowly and with the leg completely stiff, emphasised the worrying nature of it all.

Özil could not finish after a scramble early in the second half and Arsenal laboured for penetration as the game wore on. It was Norwich who might have nicked it. Martin Olsson’s cross hit Gabriel and Cech had to save smartly before, from the ensuing corner, Bennett headed down and Jonny Howson hooked over the crossbar from close-range.

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