Premier League day 16: Aston Villa 0-2 Arsenal
Aston Villa is sinking and Arsenal took advantage of it today. With the road win, Arsenal regained the lead atop of the League with Manchester City. Mesut Ozil delivered another assist while Giroud scored for the fifth consecutive time after his hat-trick at Olympiacos. He now has 50 goals with the Gunners.
on a good week…
I was a bit anxious today as we had given a lot on Wednesday and came back very, very late on Thursday morning. I know that Villa was fighting to survive and it was maybe a set of important points to win against a team low on confidence. [At] 2-0 at half-time, I knew the second half would be more difficult and then they did well and there were some opportunities for Aston Villa, but we didn’t manage to score the third goal. Overall, it was a controlled performance and a great week for us. Don’t worry, I have already had a few bad weeks so it balances itself out a little bit.
on Ramsey…
He had an outstanding performance today. I think of course he is naturally more of a central midfielder and I pushed him out wide for a while because I believe we have seen many times that when players are pushed against the line they need to shorten their technique. When they come back into the middle again, they are better players.
on Giroud’s 50th Premier League goal…
I believe he is at the top of his game and he is questioned sometimes. Finally, the numbers get people to realise he is a good player. [With] Petr Cech they didn’t need [the numbers] but for Giroud [he needs it]. He has improved, his link play is better and when we have the option for a long ball he is a very interesting option.
on why Giroud does not get so much praise…
Because he does not have electric pace. He is more of a player who plays with his back to goal and brings other people in, so maybe he is spectacular individually with his runs without the ball. He is very efficient and a very important player for the team. He is also mentally very strong.
on injuries…
The closest to having a chance is Alexis. Medically, we think – my people think, he will not be ready [for Manchester City] but Alexis being Alexis, you never know.
on Remi Garde…
His team looked in good spirit with good cohesion and they are a bit short of confidence. But I believe he has done a good job here. The people that are in charge here have worked at Arsenal and already knew him. I think he will do a good job and he needs to be given time here. Time in the Premier League is difficult to get now but I encouraged him to come because I believe he has the intelligence and the quality, a good eye and good personality.
on if Aston Villa could stay up…
It is difficult to predict you know. Every year we have seen teams survive that were there before Christmas and we would say ‘they have absolutely no chance.’ This year one of them was Leicester so it is not completely a lost cause.
on Manchester City…
Let’s see tomorrow. We have Leicester [against] Chelsea and if Leicester beat Chelsea they have a very good chance to be top of the league at Christmas. It is a big game and we want to win at home and beat City at home. There are now eight days to prepare and it will be a interesting one but we can at least recover and prepare then.
Giroud on his scoring streak:
“We were very good on the counter-attack with Theo and Mesut and [got] another clean sheet, so it was a really good day. It is a fantastic week. We did a great job in the Champions League and we really wanted to finish the week with a win and to be top of league before Leicester’s game against Chelsea. It is nice and hopefully we can have a great game against Manchester City on Monday.
“I’m very pleased with the performance today and we are in a great position and even if everything was not perfect, we had a lot of chances today which is good for me and the team.”
