Arsenal suffer defeat in last home game

Arsenal suffered a 2-1 defeat at the hands of Aston Villa on Sunday in the Gunner's last home game of the season. An early quick fire double from Darren Bent was enough to see the game through with Van Persie scoring for Arsenal in the 89th minute. Arsenal will now be looking to end their bad run of form and grab a victory in their last game of the season against Fulham next Sunday. Arsenal made a few changes as Vermaelen started for the first time in 8 months after being out with injury and Squillaci came in for Koscielny. Clichy, Nasri and Fabregas were all still out.

The first real scoring chance of the afternoon fell to Darren Bent who scored with a great volley inside the penalty area. Walker playing the ball into Bent who controlled the ball with his chest and then hit a volley on the slide which found its way past Szczesny for 1-0.

4 minutes later Villa grabbed another goal as the Arsenal defence was once again opened up. The ball being played into Young who was allowed to turn after Vermaelen had slipped. He then slipped the ball through to Bent who first time comfortably slotted the ball into the back of the net.

Arsenal then had a strong shout for a penalty turned down as Ramsey went through on goal, and just as he was about to shoot Dunne came in with the tackle and got none of the ball and all of the man with his challenge.

Arsenal's next chance fell to Van Persie who very nearly made it 2-1. Van Persie cutting inside and then turning past Collins before smashing a shot which bounced off the post and back into play. The ball then came out to Ramsey but his shot was blocked and it looped over the bar for a corner.

The score at half time was 2-0 to Aston Villa.

The first big chance of the second half fell to Gibbs as the left back exchanged passes with Van Persie before racing into the box only for Friedel to get in the way of the shot.

Aston Villa then had two chances in quick succession to put the game to bed. The first chance fell to Young as he drove a shot from range which was pushed away by Szczesny straight to Downing. Downing then waited before hitting a shot between Gibbs and Wilshere which was just saved on the line by Szczesny.

A few minutes later Arsenal thought they had grabbed a goal which put them back into the game but Chamakh's back post header was ruled out for a push on Walker.

With 2 minutes to play Arsenal did get a goal as the ball somehow found its way through to Van Persie who from six yards out made no mistake and scored a consolation goal for the Gunners.

The final score ended Arsenal 1-2 Aston Villa.

The teams lineups:

Arsenal: Szczesny, Sagna, Squillaci(45), Vermaelen, Gibbs, Arshavin(62), Ramsey, Walcott, Wilshere, Song, Van Persie.
Subs: Lehmann, Miquel, Eboue, Henderson, Denilson, Chamakh(45), Bendtner(62).

Aston Villa: Friedel, Walker, Collins, Dunne, L. Young, Downing, Delph(90), Reo-Coker, Petrov(80), A. Young, Bent.
Subs: Marshall, Cuellar, Pires, Albrighton, Bradley(80), Agbonlahor, Heskey(90).

My man of the match: Robin Van Persie

Referee: Michael Oliver
Attendance: 60,023