Arsenal 3 – 0 Villa: Just like the good old days
61 comments March 25th, 2012
Arsenal 3 – 0 Aston Villa
Match Report | Highlights | Arsene’s reaction
This was an uncommonly routine victory…
The last few weeks have left Arsenal fans accustomed to being on the edge of their seats. Four consecutive league comebacks surrounded a nail-biting night at home to Milan, before the oh-so-tight victory over Everton in midweek. It was an unfamiliar and unsurprisingly relaxing experience to watch Arsenal be so completely in control for ninety minutes. The gulf between the two sides was enormous, and had Aston Villa ever shown any sign of coming back in to the game, we plainly had several other gears to go to in order to see them off. As it turned out, it wasn’t necessary. We were able to beat them with the ‘handbrake’ firmly on.
They key was a bright startɉ۬
The players finally seem to have realised that an early goal can make their lives much, much easier. We are beginning games with a tangible sense of urgency, and yesterday we reaped the benefit with two goals in the opening 25 minutes.
Kieran Gibbs is in terrific formɉ۬
I have long been a proponent of starting Andre Santos over Gibbs whenever possible, but I must admit I’ve been extremely impressed by the young Englishman’s recent form. After a slightly sticky patch immediately after returning from injury, he has gone on to have some of his best games in an Arsenal shirt. It began at Anfield, when as late as injury time he was still making dangerous forays forward. Yesterday his goal was just reward for another convincing performance. The shirt is his to lose – and by the looks of it, he won’t give it up without a fight.
‘Songinho’ produced another perfect pass…

His clipped ball over the top was as good any of his ten assists this season. For a player who is in the side principally as a destroyer, his creative ability is quite remarkable. Credit too to Theo, whose control and finish were the icing on the cake of another dangerous display.
Gervinho deserves creditɉ۬
He is clearly out of form and lacking confidence, but yesterday he showed a willingness to put in the leg work required to help pull him out of this slump. On one occasion he chased back fully sixty yards to cover for Gibbs, and the crowd rewarded him with sustained applause.
Mikel Arteta’s free-kick was a thing of beauty…
It had been coming too – he’d brought a brilliant save out of Shay Given with a thirty-yard piledriver in the first half. The strike that eventually beat the Irish keeper was straight out of the Cristiano Ronaldo text-book, and led to this brilliantly quirky insight from Arsene Wenger in the post-match press conference:
“I prefer it when he takes free-kicks with his laces because he has short feet. Usually the guys who have good insight have bigger, longer feet, and when a guy has short feet like that they are very talented at hitting the ball with their laces. The ball floats a little bit when they take it and I think he is more built to hit the free-kicks like that.”
Thanks Arsene. I can now console myself with the fact that I’ve never scored a goal that good simply because my feet are a size 12.
Robin van Persie looked a little tiredɉ۬
…particularly in the second half. It’s entirely understandable, and thankfully our form is now such that, for the first time this season, we’re not entirely reliant on Robin for goals. The other positive is that even when he’s not entirely on top of his game, his reputation has now reached such heights that defenders are drawn to him, creating more space for our other attacking players.
Overallɉ۬
This was a good victory against an uninspired Villa side. With Chelsea and Spurs drawing at Stamford Bridge, we were able to edge further ahead of both of our rivals. There’s a long way to go, but Arsenal have demonstrated they have the ability – now they just need to retain their focus. There are just eight games to go. Come on you Gunners.
