The players’ lethargic attitude in the first half made nearly made it seem like they had given up after conceding an early penalty.
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With Leicester in action against Chelsea in the Monday Night Football, another three points at Villa Park sees Arsene Wenger’s men sit top of the pile, at least temporarily, but leaves Villa with an even tougher task ahead to preserve their Premier League status.
Barcelona beat Arsenal in the Champions League final in Paris in 2006 and have won their two meetings since but the London team’s current form, and Giroud’s goals, have rebuilt their self-belief since their 5-1 thrashing by Bayern Munich on November 4. “But don’t worry, I’ve had my fair share of bad weeks already, so this balances itself out”.
“I was a bit anxious today as we had given a lot on Wednesday and came back very, very late on Thursday morning”, Wenger explained. He is questioned sometimes but finally the numbers are adding up and people are realising what a good player he is. He is not spectacular individually but he is a very efficient player for the team.
“We believe we have an opportunity to win the title”, he said.
With Arsenal struggling to match their first-half showing, Wenger opted to introduce fresh legs in the shape of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Kieran Gibbs. “Mentally he is very strong”.
Villa are still looking for their first win under new manager Remi Garde and the Frenchman – a former Arsenal player – said they could take plenty of positives from their performance. It was goalkeeper Petr Cech’s 169th clean sheet in the Premier League – most achieved with Chelsea – matching David James’ record. “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”.
“We know that if we can give Mesut the ball, we can trust that he will make things happen time after time”.
Substitute Ayoze Perez scored three minutes into second half stoppage time after Aleksandar Mitrovic had cancelled out Eric Dier’s goal for the hosts.
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Optimism was soon replaced with disappointment when Theo Walcott sprinted in behind Alan Hutton, who put both hands on the England global to persuade Kevin Friend to point to the spot after the referee had taken a few moments to consider his decision.
