The Gunners helped themselves to a routine away win over Aston Villa on Monday evening to reclaim the top spot in the Barclays Premier League. A quick-fire first half double put Arsenal in control and despite a late rally from Villa the team saw out the match and came away with three points.
Arsene Wenger has not tasted defeat at Villa Park since 1998 but had to endure an indifferent second half from his troops as they made tough work of an Aston Villa team in woeful home form. Having said that, the Gunners were not unduly worried by the home team during the opening 45-minutes as Wozniak Szczesny had little to do. Bacary Sagna had plenty of space down the right in the early exchanges and whipped in some dangerous looking balls that ultimately came to nothing, despite Oliver Giroud glancing one header beyond the post.
Villa were feeding off scraps and had yet again set up on the counter attack at home. Relying on pace the home team was mostly cut out when breaking forward, although Fabian Delph did drive a shot wide of the Arsenal goal and Karim El Ahmadi volleyed over to give the North London club a timely reminder that the game was still in the balance. Villa´s Nathan Baker took a Gnabry shot full in the face and lay idle on the floor as medics attended to him, stopping the game for six minutes. The news is good for Baker as he has concussion and went to hospital as a precaution.
Arsenal finally made a breakthrough on the 34th minute with a well worked goal. Mesut Ozil cut the Villa defense with a quality pass that found Nacho Monreal down the left and the Spaniard in turn found Jack Wilshere in the area. The England man controlled neatly and clinically found the bottom corner to give Arsenal a 1-0 lead.
The match had barely restarted when Arsenal doubled their lead thanks to Wilshere´s lofted ball to Giroud. The Frenchman grabbed his 12th goal of the campaign with a tidy finish into the roof of the net to give the Gunners a 2-0 advantage after 45 minutes.
In the second half the game continued in the same vein but now Villa looked more dangerous on their forays forward, but Arsenal remained a goal threat at the other end. Monreal was cut out in timely fashion by Villa captain Ron Vlaar but was hurt in the challenge and was replaced by Kieran Gibbs after trying to shake off the problem.
Villa´s danger man Christian Benteke was having a quiet night but on the 74th minute the Belgian pounced to claw one back for the hosts and to make the last 25 minutes tight. A bouncing awkward cross from Matt Lowton was met by a diving Benteke who headed into the far post to give Villa hope. The game went into another gear as the tempo went up and so did the tension, with Villa pursuing a second goal but unable to get it as Arsenal held on to take the points and 1st place in the league.