Gunners too strong for Villa

Arsenal 3-0 Aston Villa

Arsenal’s display on Saturday, as they cut through Aston Villa with ease in the first half and then simply controlled the game in the second period, was reminiscent of Arsenal of old. The Gunners asserted their superiority from the very first minute and never looked back, passing the ball amongst themselves and slicing through the Villa defence at will. Having secured a seventh consecutive league win, many were left wondering what might have been had this vast improvement in performances occurred earlier in the season.

With Gervinho returning to the starting line up in place of Aaron Ramsey, Arsenal appeared more fluid in midfield and more potent going forward thanks in large part to the magnificent forward runs of Kieran Gibbs.  Time and time again the English left back’s overlapping runs provided the Arsenal attack with a further dimension and caused Villa numerous problems, while Theo Walcott and Bacary Sagna were also combining well on the right flank. In fact an early opening was created from this side as Van Persie was sent through in the box, his precise back heel setting up Walcott whose shot was well saved by Given, only to fall to Sagna whose effort cleared the bar.  A few minutes later, Gervinho, (who was fantastic on Saturday, not only going forward but also with his defensive work for the team as he tracked back on numerous occasions) slid the ball through to Gibbs who shot low and hard, with the ball somehow squirming past Given to give Arsenal a deserved lead and Gibbs his first ever Premier League goal.

Having taken the lead the Gunners did not sit back, they continued to attack in search of the second which would effectively kill the game and it duly arrived in the 25^th minute. A wonderful lofted ball by Song (which seems to have become his trademark throughout the course of this campaign) found Walcott on the edge of the box. The young Englishman, whose first touch is not always the best, controlled the ball brilliantly on this occasion and his precise finish was simply exquisite. This was the first time since 1997 that two Englishmen had scored for the Gunners. Still Arsenal continued to press forward and Mikel Arteta was unfortunate to see his powerful long range effort well saved by Given, before Van Persie’s effort  (with Given stranded and the goal seemingly at his mercy) was somehow cleared off the line by Stephen Warnock.

In the second half, with the game effectively over, Arsenal simply controlled proceedings. There was the feeling that the Gunners were playing within themselves and had they needed to could go up through the gears and tear Villa apart once more. Yet with Villa hardly testing Szczesny at all, Arsenal were allowed to stroll through the second half, allowing Wenger to introduce Andre Santos, giving the Brazilian left back a taste of first team action following his four month absence through injury. In fact Villa’s best chance came as a result of a mistake by Santos as his stray pass found Andreas Weimann whose low cross was luckily behind Agbonlahor and the chance was lost.

As the clock slowly ticked towards the 90^th minute, Aaron Ramsey wriggled free on the edge of the box but fired wide before Oxlade-Chamberlain went on a magnificent run from inside his own half, gliding past two or three Villa players, before having the ball snatched away from him by Stephen Ireland. However Arsenal would not be denied a third goal and in the 90^th minute, following a bad tackle on Song, Mikel Arteta stepped up to fire a powerful and perfectly placed free kick past Shay Given, to cap Arsenal’s wonderful display.

Following the 0-0 draw between Chelsea and Tottenham earlier in the day, the Gunners have now moved three points above their North London rivals and eight ahead of Chelsea. As Arsene Wenger stated after the game, the Arsenal players must continue to work hard and remain humble. There are no easy games in the Premier League and at this stage of the season in particular the players will have to work extremely hard in each and every minute to secure three points.  Over the past seven games they have done exactly this and with just eight games of the season remaining, let’s hope they will continue to do so.