Arsenal F.C. Wins Again Without Alexis Sanchez 5:0

Steven Petrov

The Paw Print

The “Gunners” managed to win the most spectacular victory since the beginning of the 2014/2015 Barclays Premier League, after “crushing” the Aston Villa’s opposition and scoring 5 times on Sunday, February 1^st in a game played in London, at Emirates Stadium. The most interesting fact about Arsenal’s win was that it came without the team’s best player this season, Alexis Sanchez who is recovering from an injury. Olivie Grioud in the 8^th minute, Messut Ozil in the 56^th minute, Teo Wallcot in the 63^rd, Santiago Cazorla in the 75^th (penalty) and Hector Bellerin in the last minute of the added time managed to materialize the opportunities that Arsen Wenger’s team created and, after delivering a truly inspired and qualitative performance, “the gunners” rightfully won the 3 points in last weekend’s matchup. This win helped Arsenal to take the 5^th place in the current BPL standings surpassing their city rival, Tottenham Hotspur F.C.

From the beginning of the game, Arsenal was the more active of the two teams and soon got themselves a great goal scoring opportunity in the 8^th minute. The visitors from Birmingham were trying to keep a high back line, which opened up a lot of space in front of the “Gunners” forward, Giroud. In the 8^th minute after a long ball from deep into Arsenal’s half and an absolutely amazing one touch pass from Ozil, Giroud found himself 1 on 1 with Aston Villa’s goalkeeper and didn’t fail to materialize. The home team continued to play better after the first goal and soon got another chance to score in the 27^th minute, but the post came in as a rescue after the shot by Santi Cazorla. Up until the end of the first half Arsenal had few more good chances to score but wasn’t able to, whereas the first goal scoring opportunity that Aston Villa created was in the 42^nd minute when, after a good header, Arsenal’s goalkeeper had to make a save. The second half began in a full contrast to the dynamics of the game established in the first half. The visitors were much more active creating two good opportunities through Benteke. However, right when Villa was beginning to feel more comfortable at Emirates Stadium, the “Gunners” struck again after a quick counter attack and an assist by Giroud, Ozil scored for 2:0. It seemed that at that moment Aston Villa gave up mentally, which was confirmed only 6 minutes later when Teo Wallcot ran 60 yards and with a quick combination with Cazorla was able to find himself in Villa’s 18-yard box and made the score 3:0. The 4^th goal came in the 75^th minute when Aston Villa’s goalkeeper, Brad Guzan, fouled Arsenal’s new young forward Chuba Akpom and a penalty was given for Arsenal. Cazorla managed to score luckily, after shooting straight at the goalkeeper, but Guzan failed to react quicker and the ball went in the back of the net. In the added time the other new youngster in Wenger’s team, Hector Bellerin scored for the final 5:0.

Arsenal FC is currently 4^th with 42 points after Southampton lost its home game against Swansea later on Sunday. Aston Villa FC is 16^th with 22 points.