Arsenal vs. Aston Villa: Winners and Losers from Premier League Game
Arsenal battered Aston Villa by a 5-0 scoreline in the first Premier League match of Sunday afternoon, putting themselves back within striking distance of the top four.
Olivier Giroud, Mesut Ozil, Theo Walcott, Santi Cazorla and Hector Bellerin all got on the scoresheet, while Villa failed to find the target for a sixth league game in a row.
Here are our winners and losers from the game at the Emirates Stadium.
Winner: David Ospina
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Arsenal's second-choice goalkeeper, David Ospina, is enjoying an extended run in the first team at present, capitalising on the poor form of Wojciech Szczesny.
The Colombian made a couple of good early calls to come off his line against Villa, stopping a close-range Andreas Weimann effort to preserve his side's lead before pulling off a spectacular-looking save late to deny Ashley Westwood an injury-time consolation.
Ospina looks set to continue in goal for the team and has not yet put a foot—or indeed, a hand—wrong.
Losers: Carlos Sanchez and Christian Benteke
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Two of Villa's most important players in the normal course of events, Christian Benteke and Carlos Sanchez were well off their game against Arsenal and contributed to the overall malaise of the Villans.
Sanchez was late to react to developing danger, thus unable to screen the defence effectively—Villa played a ridiculously high line at times, by the way, which wasn't Sanchez's fault—and he was also fairly poor with his distribution.
Higher up the field, Benteke was starved of good service, but he couldn't do anything of note the two or three times he did get the ball toward him in the area; he headed off target in the second half, missed the ball entirely on another occasion and didn't really hold it up to let others join in the attack from deep.
Winner: Olivier Giroud
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During his 70 minutes on the pitch, Olivier Giroud was a huge threat for Arsenal and easily the most effective player.
The France striker opened the scoring early on after a well-timed run through the centre of the defence, with his excellent, composed clip finish making up for a slightly off-key touch just beforehand. Giroud's own through pass set up Mesut Ozil for the second goal, which ended the match as a contest. He also hit the bar with his last touch.
It was a very good performance from Giroud, leading the front line for his team.
Loser: Paul Lambert
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Villa manager Paul Lambert will be anxiously awaiting results elsewhere this weekend, knowing it is only other teams continuing their own diabolical form that is keeping Villa out of the relegation zone.
In the 19 league matches since he signed his new contract, Lambert has led Aston Villa to precisely two wins. They have now gone eight games without a win, scoring just once in that run, and his team look ragged, shapeless and unable to defend fairly simple attacking plays.
Sky Sports analyst Jamie Carragher believes this atrocious stretch could result in relegation:
"The only thing that’s helped them is the results of the other teams down below yesterday.
They’ve broken the record of games without goals, and if that doesn’t change they’re going to be right in the mix to go down, and there’s a good chance they could go.
Their defensive record hasn’t been too bad, but today they were all over the place with the way they set up. But they’re not scoring goals and that’s going to be a massive problem for them.
"
The one positive for the boss was new signing Carles Gil's impressive form. He needs Scott Sinclair to have a similar impact to help turn things around, as Villa fall to 16th this weekend.
Winner: Mesut Ozil
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Germany playmaker Mesut Ozil had a starting role from the left side of Arsenal's three-man attacking-midfield line, but he had freedom to roam infield, get involved in buildup play and attempt to cause Villa problems.
He certainly did that with a goal and an assist against the Midlands outfit—again—with some remarkable off-the-ball running contributing to his finish in the second half.
Ozil was given far, far too much time by Villa when in possession, and he made them pay a heavy price. An easy game for him.
Regarding Ozil's strong showing, Arsene Wenger was quoted as saying, via Sky Sports:
"You cannot fault anybody’s performance, and Mesut did well.
He got back to competition and it takes you a while to get back to that sharpness and that competitive edge, but he is getting there.
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