He won the FA Youth Cup with the club's academy in his first season. His first-team Arsenal debut came in a League Cup fourth round match on 27 November 2001, as a substitute in a 2–0 win over Grimsby Town. Over the next two years, he made two more appearances for Arsenal, one more in the League Cup against Sunderland and one in the FA Cup against Oxford United. Arsenal went on to win the FA Cup final that season but Svärd was left out of the squad.