Norwich City vs Arsenal. Premier League.
Carrow RoadAttendance27,091.
Monday 30 November 2015 08:33, UK
Arsenal are without a Premier League win in three games after being held 1-1 by Norwich at Carrow Road.
There were also more injury worries for Arsene Wenger's side at Carrow Road after Laurent Koscielny and Alexis Sanchez were forced off with what looked to be muscular problems.
Mesut Ozil put Arsenal ahead after 30 minutes with a fine left-footed finish, before Lewis Grabban equalised before half-time with a cool finish from 12 yards.
The result leaves Arsenal in fourth place, two points off leaders Manchester City and Leicester, while Norwich sit 16th.
Arsenal were dealt an early blow when Koscielny was brought off with what looked like a back problem, forcing Arsene Wenger to replace him with Gabriel.
The visitors had the better of the opening stages, and were close to taking the lead but for Sebastien Bassong's last-ditch clearance from Ozil's sliding effort from 10 yards after good wing play from Nacho Monreal.
Sanchez stung the hands of John Ruddy from 15 yards shortly after, but Ozil got his goal on the half-hour mark to give Arsenal the lead.
After Ruddy's poor clearance was miscontrolled by Gary O'Neil, Sanchez snuck in to feed Ozil, who superbly lifted the ball over the goalkeeper and into the bottom corner from 12 yards.
Norwich had their first meaningful effort on goal in the closing stages of the first half as Robbie Brady forced Petr Cech into an acrobatic save, but they were level two minutes before the break.
Picking up Brady's low ball into the area from a central position with his back to goal, Grabban rolled substitute Gabriel before keeping his composure to slot past Cech to make it 1-1.
Sanchez, who started the Super Sunday clash despite a hamstring complaint during the 3-0 win over Dinamo Zagreb in midweek, was brought off holding the same right hamstring after stretching for the ball in the Norwich penalty area.
Cech then prevented Norwich from taking the lead with 20 minutes remaining, getting down low to his left to superbly keep out Wes Hoolahan's header, which had deflected off Per Mertesacker.
From the resulting corner Jonny Howson scooped the ball just a yard over Cech's bar during a period of pressure from the hosts, and despite a late rally from Arsenal, the match ended level.
Player ratings
Arsenal: Cech (7), Bellerin (6), Mertesacker (6), Koscielny (6), Monreal (7), Flamini (6), Cazorla (6), Ramsey (6), Ozil (7), Sanchez (6), Giroud (5)
Subs: Gabriel (5), Oxlade-Chamberlain (6), Campbell (6)
Norwich: Ruddy (6); Wisdom (6), Bennett (7), Bassong (7), Olsson (7); Howson (7), Dorrans (6), O'Neil (6), Brady (8); Hoolahan (7); Grabban (7)
Subs: Jerome (6), Redmond (6), Odjidja (6)
Man of the match: Robbie Brady
