By ’Tayo Amosu
September 22, 2014
Following a 2-0 defeat from Borussia Dortmund in Germany, Arsenal gave the best outing yet this season with a 0-3 victory away at the Villa Park home of Aston Villa Football Club, in the Gunners fifth English Premier League match of the season.
The Arsenal manager, Arsene Wenger made three changes to the team that started the UEFA Champions’ League loss on Tuesday night and it looked like another disappointing showing until the players turned the game up.
Calum Chambers, who had been side lined due to tonsillitis, came in at right back where youngster Hector Bellerin had played in Germany.
Also, the manager made good his talk of cautiously easing Jack Wilshere, who suffered a knock in the Dortmund loss, back into the team and sat him on the bench for starters.
In Wilshere’s place was Santi Cazorla and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain came in for rested Alexis Sanchez.
Worthy of note and interest too many Arsenal fans on sighting the line-up of the match was the fact that Mesut Ozil would get the chance of playing as a number 10 alongside Aaron Ramsey in the heart of Arsenal’s attacking midfield.
The Paul Lambert led Aston Villa side looked to overturn Arsenal’s 16 year record at Villa Park by claiming a victory over the Gunners.
They also came into the match with the confidence that being the second on the English Premier League log brings having secured 10 points from previous four matches.
However, Arsenal just needed a win to restore their battered confidence and prove critics wrong after performing poorly in the opening four matches securing a win and three draws and also to have a somewhat revenge on the Aston Villa team that shocked them at the Emirates on the opening match day of last season beating them by 3-1.
So, it was delicately poised for the two EPL sides coming into the match.
Despite an early possession by Arsenal, it was Aston Villa that got the first shot on goal through a Delph goal bound strike which Szczesny tips away for a corner as early as the 3rd minute.
Villa confidently waited to catch Arsenal on the break with counter-attacking runs in the early minutes as they seem very purposeful in their approach of the game.
At 15 minutes, Aston Villa was obviously the better side despite Arsenal passing the ball around and having a better possession.
The 22nd minute saw a free kick awarded to Aston Villa after a badly-timed tackle on Agbonlahor by Calum Chambers, which got him a yellow.
Cleverly whips in the free kick on the far side and Clarke had a free header at the far post but Szczesny manages to save the ball with his face.
This was the best chance for Aston Villa in the game as minutes afterwards they were punished for not taking that much deserved lead.
In the 32nd minute, one-touch passing from Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain to Danny Welbeck and then finally to Mesut Ozil saw the very much criticised German playmaker slot the ball into the corner of the net past goal keeper Guzman for Arsenal’s opening goal.
And in quick successions, the Gunners took advantage of the destabilized Aston Villa side to make it 2 and 3 goals in just 3 minutes.
The second goal began from a beautiful ball from Ramsey that caught Ozil out wide and the former Real Madrid player crossed to Welbeck who tapped home his first ever goal for Arsenal in the 33rd minute.
The 35th minute saw the 3rd and final goal of the match when Cissokho stuck out a leg meet a low shot from Kieran Gibbs, to claim an own goal.
The second half of the game was like a training session for Arsenal and they failed to increase the goal tally but rather made it a stroll in the Park.
Other than the 77th minute triple change by manager, Arsene Wenger when he brought in Jack Wilshere, Tomas Rosicky and Lukas Podolski for Aaron Ramsey, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Danny Welbeck respectively, the half was just a filled with missed chances, possession losses and some show of intent by Aston Villa.
After the match, Arsenal completed 741 passes, the most by any English Premier League club over 2 seasons, 72% of ball possession and also made sure that the 16-year-old record of avoiding defeat at Aston Villa’s Villa Park ground remains intact.
Having the game done and dusted by half-time really helped Arsenal in the second half and made the passing game even more fluid.
Also, it underlines the fact that Arsenal indeed may have just begun their season the way they want it and have recovered from a slow start to the Premier League season and a disappointing defeat in Dortmund in the UCL.
