Arsene Wenger said that Arsenal had enjoyed a “perfect week” after they won 2-0 at Aston Villa on Sunday to supplant Manchester City at the Premier League summit.
Advertisement
Arsenal however held on to take all the three points and rise above Leicester and Manchester City to the top of the league table while Villa are are the bottom.
It should also not be forgotten just how much Giroud can infuriate, seen most starkly during Arsenal’s Champions League defeat to Monaco at the Emirates Stadium in February when he failed to convert a host of clear-cut chances, leading to home spectators cheering his substitution.
Olivier Giroud scored another penalty, which was his 50th in the Premier League, and also keeps improving his scoring record going, and Wenger is hoping that the stats will finally convince his critics that he actually a top striker, despite what his critics say.
Spurs looked on course for another routine victory when Eric Dier headed home in the first half but two Newcastle substitutes turned the game on its head as first Aleksandar Mitrovic equalised with 16 minutes remaining before Perez completed the comeback in stoppage time.
“I like his all-round play and his work-rate”.
He said: “We have a week to prepare for it and we have time to recover”.
Garde knows Villa now face “must-win” games against fellow strugglers Newcastle, West Ham, Norwich and Sunderland before the New Year. At times, especially in the second half, they seemed to be playing within themselves, yet there was always a feeling that Wenger’s team could go through the gears.
The former Cardiff player was imperious against Remi Garde’s side, submitting a display of such drive and energy that the idea he would play anywhere other than in the center of the park seemed absurd.
Aaron Ramsey has backed himself to be the answer to Arsenal’s central-midfield crisis, and in the space of 12 first-half seconds at Villa Park he walked the walk to match his talk. “Who knows what will happen but we believe we can challenge for trophies”.
“A lot of Villa fans can’t stand me because their perception is that I did not do enough to take them on and win a Premier League title”.
Jordan Henderson had put Liverpool ahead, only for a Simon Mignolet mistake to gift an equaliser to Albion’s Craig Dawson on the half-hour before Jonas Olsson, who earlier had a goal disallowed, put Albion in front after 73 minutes.
“The second half was more hard for us and we had to defend well”.
Villa got the first chance as Scott Sinclair fired a shot at Petr Cech on the sixth minute.
“I encouraged him to come because I believe he has the intelligence and the quality”. We were mature, and maybe a bit lucky on one or two occasions, but overall it is great to come here and to win away again.
Advertisement
“It was the worst start we could expect in such a game”.
