Huddersfield Town 1-2 Arsenal: Gunners maintain top-four hopes with comfortable win

Arsenal manager Unai Emery said finishing in a top-four spot will be "difficult, but we can" after his side's first away win since November at Premier League strugglers Huddersfield.

The result saw the Gunners, who remain sixth, move within a point of fourth-placed Manchester United and level on points with fifth-placed Chelsea, who face Manchester City on Sunday (16:00 GMT).

"We have played 26 games and there is one point between Manchester United and us," Emery said.

"If we ask 'is it easy or difficult for us?' then yes, I think it's difficult, but we can. We are on our way."

Once Alex Iwobi's strike deflected into the bottom right corner off defender Terence Kongolo, the visitors rarely looked like relinquishing the points in Yorkshire.

Alexandre Lacazette's tidy finish from Ainsley Maitland-Niles' cross ensured victory despite a late Huddersfield fight-back.

After Iwobi and Lacazette had squandered chances to increase Arsenal's winning margin, Adama Diakhaby and Laurent Depoitre both went close to scoring for the hosts.

And while Saed Kolasinac's own goal represented the Terriers first, in 597 minutes of football, it was not enough to retrieve a point.

Huddersfield remain marooned at the bottom of the table, 13 points from safety with 12 games remaining.

Arsenal arrived in West Yorkshire in the middle of an indifferent period of form, with three defeats in seven outings during 2019 underlining long-standing defensive issues.

However, bottom club Huddersfield, with one home win all season, were the perfect opponents to get back on track against.

For all the Terriers' admirable qualities, their shortcomings, particularly in attack, allowed Unai Emery's side to brush off the absence of top scorer Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and win without being at their best.

The Gunners had won their last three matches against Huddersfield without conceding a goal and looked likely to repeat that feat until Sead Kolasinac inadvertently diverted Adama Diakhaby's effort into his own goal in added time.

In attack, Arsenal's thrust was generally provided down the flanks courtesy of right wing-back Ainsley Maitland-Niles and team-mate Kolasinac on the opposite side.

The Bosnian, who had the second most touches of any Arsenal player [70] behind Maitland-Niles [94], was the architect of the opening goal.

His strong running on the left was followed by a precision cross which allowed Iwobi to volley first time, albeit fortuitously, off Kongolo, into the bottom right corner from 10-yards out.

Maitland-Niles then fashioned the second goal, racing clear on the right and sliding a perfectly weighted ball across the face of goal for Lacazette to score his 12th goal of the campaign.

The Huddersfield supporters must feel that their season is one long broken record.

This reverse, their 11th in 12 games, represented the 10th occasion that they have lost by a single goal. And, as in many of the others, they competed gallantly throughout and were deserving of their late goal but fell short in attack.

While a muted first period only brought a penalty claim - waved away by referee Jonathan Moss - after Jason Puncheon's shot had hit Arsenal captain Laurent Koscielny, they did improve after the break.

Gambling by putting more men forward left them susceptible to Arsenal on the counter, but also allowed them to finally carve out some clear chances.

Juninho Bacuna could have dramatically levelled matters at the death and Adama Diakhaby was inches away from turning in from a corner midway through the half.

Had Laurent Depoitre's right foot shot from 18 yards out found the bottom corner before Kolasinac's own goal, it would have set up a grandstand finish.

Instead, the Terriers, who had not beaten Arsenal since 1971 - 11 years before their new coach Jan Siewert was born - succumbed to a familiar fate.

Huddersfield Town manager Jan Siewert speaking to BBC Match of the Day: "First of all I am proud. We played against Arsenal, one of the top teams in the table and we had many chances. We tried everything, we gave everything to win the game right until the end. How we created chances made me very proud.

"The most important thing is that I come in, in a very difficult situation. Judge us by our work and what the players are doing and this makes me proud. The supporters' applause makes me proud. I will fight until the end to keep these lads in the Premier League.

"I showed them the way they could play and, in two or three weeks it is a lot to do, but everyone is willing to do it.

"I won't judge about these (the referee's) decisions; it is our work the most important thing and it was a tight game, this was Arsenal.

"I have a lot to learn because on the video it is different. Every chat we have I get to learn them better.

"We are working on it as much as we can and they proved it today, the way we are creating these chance - and the fight comes first, everything else comes in the future."

Arsenal manager Unai Emery, speaking to BBC Match of the Day: "Good victory and good work; today I think our work was very good.

"We didn't win away from home in a long time and we are closer to the top four.

"A clean sheet is another thing we want before every match but we spoke about a lot of things about the match and the win is the first thing, we just had to score one goal more than them.

"The attitude is great from everybody."

Huddersfield travel to Newcastle in their next Premier League fixture on Saturday, 23 February (15:00 GMT).

Arsenal travel to Bate Borisov in the Europa League on Thursday, 14 February (17:55 GMT) before resuming their Premier League duties at home to Southampton on Sunday, 24 February (14:05 GMT).