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MOTD: Arsenal 3-0 Aston Villa

By on September 20, 2014

Aston Villa actually played well in the beginning. They should have taken the lead, in fact, but after their concentration lapsed for just three minutes, Arsenal had put the game past them. Mesut Ozil simultaneously turned it on, and Villa simply couldn’t handle. Those are the glimpses of the form which will lead him to undoubtedly be one of the best players in the Premier League ever, if he turns it on. This season, he only shows that kind of form in rare bursts.

But at least this time it couldn’t have come at a more crucial moment. Ozil, and largely Arsenal as a whole, had been receiving criticism in spades following their defeat to Borussia Dortmund midweek, in which they were lackluster and simply didn’t work hard enough, but they turned their bullying around into a win of their own. Danny Welbeck also put his midweek failures behind him to scored his debut in Arsenal colors. Now, Arsenal are top of the table. It was a perfect win.

As a matter of fact, Welbeck combined with Ozil to create Arsenal’s first. The former slid a brilliant through ball in behind Villa’s defense to the latter, whole poked a low effort past Brad Guzan. Villa were just kicking themselves that they couldn’t have finished a single one of their number of chances in the thirty-two minutes previous. Fabian Delph and Alan Hutton had come close, while Ciaran Clark was only denied a goal as Wojciech Szczesny produced a brilliant point-blank range save to stop the full-back’s diving far post header. If anything, Villa were in shock that they had let their convincing start go array so quickly. And it was in that short period of shock in which Arsenal put the win away. Ozil curled a brilliant far post cross past the defenders to the run of Welbeck, who had emphatically volleyed the ball home from point-blank range. Even without Alexis Sanchez, Arsenal have the ability to play brilliantly, but need to do so more often. The Gunners’ third was largely luck, as Cissokho turned the Kieran Gibb’s cross into the back of his own net, and perhaps the outcome of such a defensive breakdown from Villa was the result of both Ashley Westwood and Ron Vlaar out via injury. Arsene Wenger could hardly care less, however.

The match was all but over, and after a fast paced start Arsenal could calm down and practice their possession based build-up play. For the rest of the match they were to amass an astonishing 72% possession, and more passes than any other Premier League team have in a league match for over two years – 741. Ozil only misplaced four passes all game. Arsenal are at the top of the table, and while they will most likely be kicked off their perch tomorrow, certainly can be fighting for the title at the end of this season of Ozil, Welbeck, and Sanchez can perform like they did in that brilliant span of three minutes and twelve seconds more often.
Man of the Match: Mesut Ozil

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.