Match Review: Aston Villa 1 Arsenal 2 - Premier League 13.01.14

Different competition, same result. The Gunners restored their slender lead at the top of the Premier League with a fairly comfortable win over Aston Villa. Despite a nervy 15 minutes at the end, we ran out comfortable winners and it was a vital win too, after the other 6 of the top 7 teams won over the weekend. Playing on Monday meant the pressure was all on us, but once again, the team rose to the challenge.

After the unexpected and devastating news of Theo’s knee injury, we had some good news with Oxlade-Chamberlain returning to the squad for the first time since injuring his knee on the opening day. The winger/midfielder is now almost certain play a large part in our title challenge, offering more pace and width than some of our other options. Also returning from injury was Kieran Gibbs, who took his place on the bench following injury at Newcastle. Unfortunately Mikel Arteta missed out on the squad completely having picked up a muscle injury, while Ramsey is still recovering from his injury on boxing day. Vermaelen also missed out following a knock in the Sp*rs game. It meant Flamini and Wilshere started with Giroud, Cazorla, Özil and Gnabry making up the attacking four.

Villa lined up with a 5-3-2 formation and had a clear plan of press/foul Arsenal into submission. The formation was built for the counter attack, with Benteke and Agbonlahor waiting up front in case Arsenal lost the ball. Consequently, Arsenal dominated the possession, but as is often the case in these games it looked like it would take a while for the breakthrough to come.

Giroud had a good early chance to head in a Sagna cross, but couldn’t hit the target and he probably should have done better. But a key moment in the match came soon after. From an Arsenal corner, the ball fell to Serge Gnabry 25 yards out and he hit a ferocious effort, which Nathan Baker caught full in the face. The Villa defender was knocked out cold and required seven minutes of treatment before being stretchered off. This clearly gave Villa a problem as during Baker’s treatment, a number of players were called over to the touchline to receive instructions about what the injury would mean. Sure enough, Villa changed to a 4-4-2 with Bacuna replacing Baker and moving into midfield.

The change of formation seemed to work in our favour and within ten minutes of the change we took the lead. Mesut Özil played a beautiful ball in behind the full back for Monreal, who pulled the ball back for Jack Wilshere. Giroud had made a great run across the front of the area, pulling the centre backs out of position and giving Wilshere time and space to control and roll the ball past the keeper. While we hadn’t looked at our best or most threatening up until this point, we produced a moment of incisive attacking play to gain the lead, which is something that I think has really contributed to our success this season. In games like this one and the one at Newcastle, we’ve found a moment of brilliance to score when it has looked as if we’re struggling. It’s been a feature of a number of our performances this season and it’s been vital in turning draws into wins.

We didn’t have long to wait for the second goal, just 17 seconds in fact. From the kick off we pressed hard straight from the kick off and Jack Wilshere stole the ball in midfield. The Englishman turned provider, chipping a brilliant ball over the top to Giroud, who took the ball down well, got a bit of luck, but adapted well to fire the ball into the far corner. Two goals in a minute stunned the home side and gave Arsenal complete control of the game. Villa, having set up to counter attack, now found themselves needing two goals just to level.

Not for the first time this season, Arsenal’s tactic for the second half was one of controlling the game and conserving the lead rather than looking for more goals. Aston Villa had more of the ball, but weren’t much of a threat and we looked completely at ease. Monreal had a chance on his right foot after weaving his way into the box, but ended up injuring himself as the shot was blocked. The left back was replaced by Kieran Gibbs and will have a scan to see if he may have broken a metatarsal, which would be another big blow for an already injury stricken squad. Serge Gnabry was also replaced soon after, having struggled to get into the game, by Tomas Rosicky.

Having looked so comfortable for the entire match so far, we suffered an uncharacteristic lapse of concentration with 15 minutes left. Cazorla gave the ball away on the left and Lowton whipped in a fantastic cross which was converted at the far post by Benteke. Mertesacker went absolutely nuts at the sloppiness of the goal and rightly so. We’d shown a huge amount of professionalism up until then, but a brief moment of poor play threatened to undo 75 minutes of top work. We were also handed another injury blow, as Rosicky had to be replaced by Chamberlain. The Czech midfielder suffered a broken nose in a challenge with the rather unpleasant Gabby Agbonlahor. It’s unclear whether Rosicky will be available to face Fulham on Saturday.

As we’ve done many times this season and last, we dug deep and ground it out in the closing minutes. Mertesacker and Koscielny were absolute rocks at the back, making a huge amount of clearances and preventing Benteke from causing more damage. The one scare did come from Benteke though; he was allowed a free header in the box, despite a clear foul on Mertesacker, but sent it straight into Szczesny’s arms. There were some good moments from Chamberlain and Özil in keeping position and helping us get up the pitch and release the pressure. In the end though, we ran out clear and deserved winners.

There was some negativity around on twitter after the game, which to me is ridiculous. If you think that we didn’t deserve that win or weren’t completely in control of the game, then you can’t have been watching the right match. Bar the scare at the end, that was a routine, comfortable away win, under a lot of pressure following the weekend results and if anything, the performance and result are reasons for positivity. We continue to win even when not at our best and we are not ‘going away’ as many pundits wish we would. There is no room for negativity in a title race and we need to back our players all the way. Next up, Fulham at home. Up the Arsenal.

Stat of the game

Mertesacker and Koscielny completed 50 clearances (headed and normal) and both completed 100% of their passes.

Teams

Aston Villa (5-3-2/4-4-2)

Guzan, Lowton, Vlaar, Baker (Bacuna 21’), Clark, Luna, El Ahmadi ■ (Weimann 73’), Westwood, Delph, Benteke, Agbonlahor ■
Subs
Bacuna, Helenius, Weimann, Albrighton, Steer, Sylla, Tonev

Arsenal (4-2-3-1)
Szczesny, Sagna, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Monreal ■ (Gibbs 66’), Flamini, Wilshere ■, Cazorla, Özil, Gnabry (Rosicky 69’ (Chamberlain 81’)), Giroud
Subs
Fabianski, Jenkinson, Gibbs, Chamberlain, Rosicky, Park, Podolski

Player Ratings

Szczesny - 6/10 - Had nothing to do and couldn’t do anything about their goal
Sagna - 7/10 - Had to work harder in attack due to Gnabry struggling
Mertesacker - 8/10 - Hands down the best defender in the league this season
Koscielny - 8/10 - Not far behind the German in terms of influence and performance
Monreal - 7/10 - Another good performance, hopefully there will be good news on his injury
Flamini - 7/10 - Battled hard and put in some strong challenges
Wilshere - 8/10 - He’s really returning to form after struggling early on (MOTM)
Cazorla - 6/10 - Didn’t really get going, plus was at fault for the Villa goal
Özil - 7/10 - Got some unfair stick yesterday. Honestly, he’s top notch
Gnabry - 6/10 - Didn’t influence the game much
Giroud - 7/10 - Great to have him back, will be instrumental in the run in
Subs
Gibbs - 7/10 - Glad to have him back, especially if Monreal is injured
Rosicky - N/A - Was taken out before he had a chance to have an impact
Chamberlain - N/A - Looked to slot in nicely though, hopefully will get time against Fulham

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