Arsenal take on a struggling Aston Villa at the Emirates Stadium.
Here is my view on the game
I headed down to London with my other half and a mate of ours ready for the Game, in good spirits, we were all confident on the back of the last 2 results against Stoke and Manchester City in the Premier League and the confidence was to pay off.
For those of you that have listened to me on Pitch Talk shows you would have heard me say a number of times when results were against us that it was time for a change in manager, but on the back of the last few results I will admit to being proven wrong and the more that Arsene Wenger does that the happier I will be as it will see us improving as a squad and heading in the right direction.
Onto the game itself I thought it was a dominant and clinical performance from Arsenal with players such as Coquelin, Ozil, Walcott and Cazorla impressing. They showed that even without Alexis we are still a strong side with lots of attacking options.
The first moment of note was when striker Olivier Giroud was through on Goal set up by a world class flick from Mesut Ozil whose excellent back flick set Giroud away and he slotted calmly under Keeper Brad Guzan right in front of the home fans including myself in the Clock End.
Not long after this it could and perhaps should have been 2-0 to the Arsenal with some excellent build up play leading to a shot from Santi Cazorla whose shot came back off the post, and it remained 1-0 until the second half.
Aston Villa themselves did have a good 5 minute spell just before the break and David Ospina had to be alert to keep up his excellent record of clean sheets since replacing Szczesny in the Arsenal goal by saving down low from Andreas Weimann just before the break.
In the second half Aston Villa came out with the same mentality that they ended the first half with, Christian Benteke had two half chances but after those scares Arsenal got themselves together and went on to record their biggest win since 2012 which was a 7-1 victory against Blackburn Rovers, and the second half had more interesting statistics to come out of it after that.
It was soon 2-0 to the Arsenal in the 55th minute when Giroud returned the favour to Mesut Ozil to show low into the bottom right corner and out of the reach of Brad Guzan who could do nothing about it.
After this there was only ever going to be one winner and the third Arsenal goal was again scored by another player coming back from a long layoff and with something to prove to manager Arsene Wenger who without Alexis must have been delighted to see the Englishman find his goal scoring touch in the 62nd minute after an excellent lay off from Santi Cazola.
Arsene Wenger saw that the game was won and with one eye on the North London Derby on Saturday brought on Tomas Rosicky and Chuba Akpom to replace Theo Walcott and Olivier Giroud and it was the latter in Akpom who was involved almost straight away, he went on one of his clever runs into the box and looked like he had taken one too many touches but although he had gone away from Brad Guzan the young Arsenal front man got to the ball first and referee Anthony Taylor was quick to point to the spot.
Up stepped Santi Cazorla who has been in red hot form of late scoring 4 out of his last 5 penalties and although the penalty was straight at Guzan the ball squirmed in off the keepers hands leaving the Villa keeper frustrated and taking it out on the post as the Gunners went 4-0 up.
Just after this Arsene Wenger decided to make the 3rd Arsenal change and it was Aaron Ramsey who was replaced by Flamini leaving new signing Gabriel on the bench.
Arsenal created a couple more chances before the last real moment in the game and Monreal and Akpom both went close with the Arsenal teenager showing his talent and quality that Arsenal fans have seen in the reserves and capital one cup games in past seasons.
It was another teenager who was to complete the rout and this time the goal was a memorable one for Spanish right back Hector Bellerin who was set up by that man Santi Cazorla once again to fire and placed low shot in off the post to cap a perfect day with his first ever career goal and to become the 3rd Arsenal right back to score this season.
The Drama was not quite finished and as the game went in to the closing stages of injury time, Aston Villa had another chance of their own, substitute Ashley Westwood came close with a 25 yarder which Ospina was right behind to make a brilliant save and to direct the ball out for a corner to the massive cheers of the Aston Villa fans that were still in the stadium, which resulted in chants of let’s pretend we scored a goal from their fans next to us which was met by a chorus of cheers by the Arsenal fans in the Clock End.
Arsene Wenger can be extremely pleased with 3 more home points, another clean sheet and 5 different goal scorers without Alexis, Welbeck and Oxlade Chamberlain as well as long term absentees Wilshire and Debuchy.
With Alexis looking likely to be fit for the game on Saturday, it is going to make for an interesting North London Derby with Kane and Erikson on form for Spurs and the Attacking options at Arsenal who are all in good form.
The day itself was completed by a trip to the Gunners pub to watch the famous Arsenal Away Boyz live with lots of singing and dancing and lots of extremely happy Gunners after a fantastic win, all looking forward to the Derby on Saturday at White Hart Lane, personally I have a good feeling for Saturday, if we play like we did against Manchester City I think we can come away with all the points and possibly even leap Southampton and Manchester United depending on results and goals scored. Come on you Gunners!
Here are the two line-ups from Sunday’s game
Arsenal: Ospina, Bellerin, Mertesacker, Koscielney, Monreal, Coquelin, Ramsey (Flamini 77), Cazorla, Ozil, Walcott (Rosicky 70) Giroud (Akpom 70) Subs not used Sczczesny, Chambers, Gabriel, Gibbs
Aston Villa: Guzan, Hutton, Okore, Clark, Richardson, Cleverely (Agbonlahor 66) Delph, Sanchez (Westwood 76) Gill, Benteke, Weimann (Sinclair 66), Subs not used. Given, Cissokho, Bacuna, Baker.
Mike Harniman
(One very happy Gooner)
(One very happy Gooner)
