Arsenal Vs Aston Villa Full Match Highlights And Videos

Needing another three points, Arsenal took care of business, although it was a bit sloppy. Here is the full match play by play with highlight videos.

On a rainy, dreary afternoon in Birmingham, Arsenal and Ason Villa both decided to match the weather. Although it would be Arsenal that found enough form to put this one away. Here is a play-by-play recap with full highlights at the end. Enjoy:

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• 0′ – Here we go, amidst the rain and the nastiness.
• 4′ – Villa with a bit of a dangerous cross aimed at Gestede but no harm is done.
• 6′ – Sinclair drives outside the box and fires a shot right into Cech’s midsection.
• 7′ – Penalty called rather late to give Arsenal an early chance. Up steps Giroud.
• 8′ – GOAL. Giroud coolly slots it home. 1-0.
• 10′ – Giroud goes down clutching his knee but the taste of his goal serves as a remedy.
• 16′ – Giroud tries to chip on Campbell and it looks rather threatening but Guzan snuffs it out.
• 18′ – Ramsey gives the ball away incredibly recklessly just outside the box.
• 20′ – Set piece finds Giroud’s head but he flips it a little too softly as it gets cut out.
• 20′ – Corner. Finds Koscielny’s foot but he launches it into the tenth row.
• 21′ – Cech rather nervously clears but it goes nowhere and almost turns into disaster as Bacuna fortunately fires too high.
• 22′ – It begs to be noted that this game is incredibly sloppy. Let’s just blame the weather.
• 25′ – After passing the ball around with no determination, Arsenal give it away out of boredom and it leads to a Jordan Ayew shot, which is blocked.
• 30′ – Nice set piece routine but the pass misses Koscielny’s head by a fraction.
• 31′ – More sloppy play leaves the ball at Gueye’s feet. He fires but there was ‘no real control’.
• 37′ – GOAL. Aaron Ramsey takes a very unselfish pass from Mesut Ozil on a three-on-one and punts it home. Beautiful counter attack. 2-0.
• 41′ – Another attack down the right is led by Joel Campbell and ends with another Ramsey shot which is blocked.
• 45′ – Cross leads to a ball bouncing around in Arsenal’s box but Cech wins the toss up.
• 45’+1′ – Theo Walcott decides to make us feel a bit sick as he is flagged offside but still fires in a nice shot.

HALF-TIME.

• 45′ – Enough of that half-time garbage. Let’s play.
• 48′ – Veretout decides to fire from distance but it’s far too high.
• 49′ – Aston Villa launch their most dangerous attack of the game. Gestede has an open attempt to the ball but the header is rather limp.
• 50′ – Carlos Sanchez fires a curler but Petr Cech was never going to be beaten with that.
• 52′ – Mark this day down. Giroud actually looks effective going down the flank.
• 53′ – Good team play by Villa as Ayew finds Sinclair, who can’t handle the pass.
• 54′ – Mertesacker and Cech combine for a Three Stooges like progression that should have ended worse than it did.
• 55′ – Arsenal looking downright sloppy.
• 56′ – Villa have another chance but Sinclair heads barely over the bar.
• 57′ – Have I mentioned that Arsenal doesn’t look good? Still 2-0 though, I’ll be quiet about that.
• 59′ – Veretout decides to fire another, this one even wilder than the last.
• 60′ – Koscielny takes up the generous cause of Arsenal and gifts the ball to Villa.
• 61′ – Decent, if not a bit wild counter attack by Arsenal goes nowhere.
• 62′ – Bacuna is wide open and launches a venomous curler but it narrowly misses. If Arsenal isn’t nervous yet, they should be.
• 66′ – Gibbs first action is to get involved in the attack. Ends harmlessly but it looked good initially.
• 71′ – Four straight corners for the Villains turns into nothing.
• 74′ – Arsenal with a half chance as Gibbs fires in a cross. It’s taken by Guzan.
• 77′ – Charles Gil fires but it continues curling wide of goal.
• 82′ – Some nice passing around the box leadsto a shot by Ox but it’s deflected.
• 85′ – The Ox launches a fierce counter attack but it ends in a fine tackle by the Villains.
• 90’+1′ – Arsenal look grossly exposed as Adama cuts them to shreads but it ends up turning into nothing. Luckily.
• 90’+3′ – The Ox finds Bellerin in the box but the header was never going to be a problem.

Arsenal got started on the back foot, as the Villains were controlling possession rather easily. However, in the 8′, Arsenal was awarded a rather late penalty but a penalty nonetheless. Giroud slotted it home as such:

Just like that, it was 1-0. It was also Giroud’s 50th EPL Goal for the Gunners, becoming the third fastest Arsenal man to 50 goals. The first half hour looked incredibly ugly. The ball was being given away like we were playing hot potato. Neither the Gunners nor the Villains could pose a serious threat. However, in the 37′, a counterattack that started with a nice slide tackle by Ramsey is ended with an open-net goal from Ramsey. Ozil unselfishly set him up. It looked like this:

True team play. Honestly, it’s pretty selfish of Ozil to want another assist. Is he really all about personal gain?

The game got even sloppier going into the second half. Arsenal looked like a completely different team. Had they played this way against Olympiakos, it never would have worked. At least they are getting it out of their system against lesser opponents and still coming away with results. If sloppy Arsenal can beat Sunderland 3-1 and take care of Villa 2-0, everything is perfectly okay.