Arsenal hero Theo Walcott disappointed not to score a hat-trick against Swansea

Arsenal hero Theo Walcott is disappointed at not having had a hat-trick against Swansea despite being presented with a couple of gilt-edged chances in the second half. The forward scored two in the first half, taking his tally in the Premier League to five, more than any other Arsenal player.

The Gunners made hard work of the game at the Emirates and twice relinquished a two-goal advantage despite having the majority of the possession. However, Granit Xhaka's dismissal was the tipping point for the north London club as they hung on for dear life in the last 20 minutes, with the Swans putting in wave after wave of attacks.

The Swiss international would feel hard done by the dismissal as he made a cynical foul to bring down Modou Barrow, which was deemed violent conduct by referee John Moss. However, the Gunners hung on for three crucial points as they made it six wins on the trot and made their way to second in the league, level with leaders Manchester City and one point above arch rivals Tottenham Hotspur.

"Not quite — it didn't have a hat-trick from me! I was disappointed with a couple of chances at the end but when you're down to 10 men, we had to work really hard today," Walcott told Arsenal's official website when asked if the game had everything. "It's always difficult when you come back from international break. People come back from all parts of the world and you only get a short amount of time to actually train together before you're at it again.

"But yeah, when you've got 10 men in the Premier League it's not easy, but Swansea, they caused us a lot of problems but when it was 11 men it was quite even to be honest. But yeah, a very good three points in the end, definitely when you look at other results today."