Missed the 1st 20 and the goal unfortunately but weve controlled the last 15mins and look good but need to go for the 2nd goal to kill the game
Ozil is amazing. Great to see Ramsey scoring again. He could be a very important player for us over the next few weeks.
So, so poor from Koscielny. Carelessly gave the ball away and Villa nearly scored out of nothing. Now they have a corner...
Fun fact: Been exactly 17 years to the day that Villa last beat us at Villa Park. We seem to enjoy coming here because we've got a pretty good record.
0-2. HT. Boos round Villa Park. Not exactly been vintage Arsenal, but we've been done well enough to get a two-goal cushion going into half time. Villa have huffed and puffed, but their confidence is shot and you can tell. None of the players on the same wavelength and they all keep misreading passes and runs off each other. I was unsure whether it was a penalty for the opener, but looking at the replays, Hutton clearly impedes Walcott by tugging his shirt when he was about to have a shot on goal. Keown is a reasonable pundit, but for him to say that we were lucky to get the penalty was wrong, in my opinion. Sinclair looked lively to begin with, but he seems to be the only one that wants to make things happen. The rest of the team have lacked any sort of incisiveness or quality in the final third. Villa look very shaky at the back and the atmosphere around them clearly is affecting the team, but that's not our problem. We should see this one out relatively comfortably. But we do have that ability to gift team's goals out of nothing, and we nearly did when Koscielny gave the ball away to Ayew and he had an opportunity to score, but it got blocked. Assuming we don't make any stupid mistakes, we should end the game with 3 points. Roll on second half!
Great first half, we've kept the ball well and then turned up the pace to hit them. Good performance. Ozil for the second goal with his little drop of the shoulder before collecting the ball and then disguised pass for Ramsey put a massive smile on my face, I love the way he plays football. Twice the assists of anyone else in the league. Ramsey, Giroud and Walcott all looking up for it today as well. Pleased Giroud is puttin away these penalties we are getting. And Walcotts offside finish at the end...what a shot! We have been closing them down well as a group and controlling the tempo of the game really well, slowing it down when they are pressing us and looking fired up and speeding things up when they lose there shape or sit back. Great game management. They need to do the same in the second half to see out the game.
Also Campbell has been running his socks off, you can tell he really wants to impress during this chance he is being given. Flaming also has had an energetic preformance and been positioning himself very well. This season he actually looks to be putting in some decent performances, he has edged ahead of Arteta based on his legs.
Ozil is looking as imperious as ever and we seem to be in cruise control. Also happy to see Campbell play well as it should give us another option up front. He's a good guy, just needed a run and show his worth. It's always good to have players with high energy, and he seems to have plenty of it!
