Not that they were particularly bad, but Theo and Per didn't have the best of games. Slapstick miss of an open goal from Per, plus a few misplaced passes especially early in the first half, when we looked a bit shaken and lacking of confidence. Theo was offside for his entertaining moment, but still he should've done better on that and another couple of chances he had. With just 40 touches of the ball and 18 attempted passes, he was under-involved today, especially when you compare him to Mesut or even Oxlade-Chamberlain
Southampton (a) & AFC Bournemouth (h) – Bottle or Fatigue? & Another Özil Pass-terclass
Arsène said post match that the team started with the trauma of the Southampton game in their system as the visitors started brighter but we wrestled control of the game and that is when Mesut Özil stole the show once more with a ridiculous array of passes that sliced open Bournemouth. The German was once again on another level to those around him on both teams
Aston Villa (a) – A Good Weekend For Gunners See Arsenal Go Top
Very happy for Oliver Giroud to continue his scoring record, this time from the spot. Although can I be a little churlish about the kick not quite finding the corner. Had Brad Guzan guessed the right way then the outcome may have been different. Unnecessary moaning? Yeah probably, apologies. So 50 Premier league goals for Giroud then? Not to be sniffed at, his scoring record has been top bracket this season
Aston Villa (a) “His tackling was spot on and always a threat to score” – Q&A
But if forced I must give it to Aaron Ramsey mostly because of his energy and effectiveness in carrying out the game plan. His tackling was spot on and always a threat to score on the counter.This was best exemplified by second goal, starting the move by dispossessing a Villa player and sprinting into the the Villa box to convert the cutback by Ozil. I would like to give a big shout-out to the ever improving Joel Campbell. He gave almost everything especially in the first half by pressing the Villa attackers on their left side and dropping back to help Bellerin. It made a hell of a difference in making Villa look toothless.
Swansea (a) – Bellerin had no right, Özil & Three points
Just after half time Giroud nodded us ahead after yet another Mesut Özil assist from the corner kick. Crazily enough it was Özil's first set piece assist of the season. This is because Santi Cazorla has been taking most of the dead balls. I remember when Cesc Fabregas was getting all kinds of praise for his assist numbers at this stage last season, most of those were from set pieces, you would imagine that Özil would have even more to his name if he was number one taker of set pieces
Everton (h) “I can’t think of a player I like watching more when he plays like this” – Q&A
We took quite some time to get our engines running, and the opening exchanges were not as fluent as I am accustomed to see. We can certainly attribute the slowness of our start to the fact that most of our players played against Bayern on Tuesday, however the soggy pitch slowing our play down didn't help matters. Both our goals came from aerial balls at a period where we were unable to make much headway as the ball kept getting stuck on the pitch.
In the second half we gave a polished performance with more zip, and while Everton had many opportunities with the ball, I felt we were in the driving seat all game long