The Villa chief watched as Olivier Giroud’s penalty and Aaron Ramsey’s goal gave his former club Arsenal a comfortable 2-0 victory at Villa Park on Sunday afternoon to leave the Midlands outfit marooned at the foot of the Premier League table – eight points from safety.
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Craig Gardner’s reckless knee-high challenge on Dejan Lovren saw the Croatia defender carried off on a stretcher and at various times during the match there were words exchanged with West Brom counterpart Tony Pulis.
I still believe we have the talent to win games. “Sometimes, he’s frustrated that he doesn’t get the same balls back but he’s a very important link in our game”, he said.
“He is more of a player who plays with his back to goal and brings other people in”. He is very efficient and a very important player for the team. “Mentally he is very strong”.
Leicester City could pass up Arsenal tomorrow night when they take on Chelsea, but the Gunners still look more consistent than both Manchester clubs when it comes to evaluating title contenders right now.
My performance today (against Sunderland) was good and hopefully I can keep building on that now to play where I prefer to play’. Don’t worry, I have already had a few bad weeks so it balances itself out a little bit.
Arsenal was 2-0 in to half time and came back into the second half playing on the back seat. “It was a great move from us, we’ve seen there was an opportunity to get forward, it was a great ball from Theo [Walcott] and then the vision of [Mesut] Özil to play me in for a simple tap-in was delightful as well”.
And Wenger believes that the striker is a key member to his side.
“He’s always available, that’s one thing I like with him”. Of course, you don’t have much time in the Premier League.
“It’s not completely a lost cause yet. You only have to look at what happened to Leicester last season when they were bottom for so long”. “We have shown what we are capable of and have to continue now, in what is a busy part of the season”.
Remi Garde pocketed a Premier League winner’s medal as a player with Arsenal in 1998 and enjoyed a successful stint with Lyon in Ligue 1 but his Villa players are in a huge battle battle to emerge from the relegation zone.
The 29-year-old has become only the seventh player to reach that landmark in the Premier League and the third fastest to do so, after Thierry Henry and Ian Wright.
The defeat means the Londoners stay fifth on 26 points, missing the chance to move into the top four ahead of Manchester United who suffered a shock 2-1 loss at Bournemouth on Saturday.
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Olivier Giroud converted what appeared to be a harshly awarded penalty at Villa Park in the eighth minute for his 50th league goal for the north London side.
