Arsenal return to form with victory over Villa

Arsenal recovered from a grim week well as they got a crucial 3 points by beating Aston Villa 4-2 on Saturday at Villa Park as The Gunners went top for part of the afternoon. Arsenal now lie in third after Man Utd beat Blackburn 7-1 and Chelsea drew 1-1 with Newcastle. Arshavin, Nasri, Chamakh and Wilshere grabbed the goals for Arsenal as Clark grabbed both of Villa's.
Arsene Wengar put out a more familiar lineup to the side that lost to Braga in mid week making 7 changes, the most significant was the forceful change of Rosicky taking Fabregas' place because he suffered an injury against Braga. Meanwhile in the Aston Villa lineup Robert Pires made his first start for the Villa against his old club which he did so well for and was awarded as Arsenal's sixth greatest player in history.

Arsenal had an immediate opportunity when Arshavin was gifted the ball after a sloppy pass from Warnock. He then found Chamakh who had Friedel quickly upon him but he managed to get the shot away but the ball was cleared off the line by Collins.

It was all Arsenal in the opening moments of the game and Rosicky had a pretty decent chance when Wilshere fed the ball to him inside the area but he drilled his effort just wide of the target.

Aston Villa then had their first chance of the game. It was an amazing chance which they should have scored from when Downing delivered a ball from the right to the back post where Ashley Young was waiting but he put his effort over. Aston Villa should have been ahead despite all of Arsenal's early possession.

Then on 38 minutes the Gunners hard work paid off when they took the lead through Andrey Arshavin. Fabianski lofted the ball forward and it split two defenders and through to Arshavin who raced down the left hand side and then cut inside and smashed his shot beyond Friedal to give Arsenal a deserved lead.

Nasri should have then doubled Arsenal's lead when Arshavin played a throughball to him, he managed to round the keeper only to see his shot hit the side netting.

Arsenal were playing brilliant football and Chamakh had a great chance to extend the Gunner's lead. Sagna delivering from the right straight onto the head of Chamakh who headed goalwards but Friedel was in the way to keep him out brilliantly.
From the resulting corner Arsenal finally did extend their lead. Arshavin sending the ball out to Nasri on the edge of the box who volleyed through a crowd of bodies and into the back of the net.

The score at half time was 2-0 to Arsenal.

6 minutes into the second half Aston Villa scored and were right back in the game. Squillaci headed a cross away from the box but straight to Ciaran Clark on the edge of the box who controlled the ball with his chest and then volleyed the ball past Fabianski to make it 2-1. Arsenal claimed that the goal should not have stood though as Carew was standing in an offside position and was clearly blocking Fabianski's vision therefore was playing an active role in Clark's goal.

It was now a question of would Arsenal be able to hold on or would they drop more points as they did against Spurs.
Four minutes later Arsenal restored their 2 goal cushion after Rosicky slipped in a ball to Chamakh who beat his man and then poked the ball past the oncoming Brad Friedel to make the score 3-1.

Clark could then have had his second of the game to make the score the 3-2 and put Villa back within touching distance of Arsenal as Sagna scuffed a clearence straight to the young midfielder who fired his shot wide.

Clark then did have a second goal of the game. Young delivering a corner from the right onto the head of Dunne who found Clark who put his header off the underside of the bar and in, to put Aston Villa back in the game once again.

Aston Villa were pressing for an equaliser but it would not come and Arsenal won the ball back and broke and the inevitable happened as Arsenal made it 4-2 and sealed all three points. Denilson's shot deflected off the defender into the path of Chamakh who lobbed the ball to the back post to find Wilshere who headed home for his first goal of the season.

The final score ended Aston Villa 2-4 Arsenal.

The teams lineups:

Aston Villa: Friedel, Young, Dunne, Collins, Warnock, Clark, Pires(46), Downing, Bannan(85), Young, Carew(65).
Subs: Guzan, Lichaj, Beye, Hogg, Herd(85), Ireland(65), Delfouneso(46).

Arsenal: Fabianski, Sagna, Squillaci, Koscielny, Clichy, Nasri(84), Wilshere, Song, Rosicky(89), Arshavin(84), Chamakh.
Subs: Szczesny, Djourou(89), Gibbs(84), Walcott, Denilson(84), Van Persie, Bendtner.

My man of the match: Andrey Arshavin

Referee: Mark Clattenburg
Attendance: 38,544