Arsène Wenger hailed a “great week” for Arsenal after his team followed their dramatic and memorable win against Olympiakos in the Champions League in midweek with a comfortable victory over Aston Villa that enabled them to go to the top of the Premier League table.
The Arsenal manager singled out Aaron Ramsey for special praise on a day when the Welshman started and finished a brilliant counterattacking move to score his third league goal of the season, after Olivier Giroud had converted an early penalty, to inflict a 2-0 defeat on an Aston Villa side that remain bottom and eight points adrift of safety.
Wenger had feared that Wednesday night’s exertions in Greece, where Arsenal won 3-0 to qualify for the knock-out stage of the Champions League, would take its toll on his players but the Frenchman had no reason to worry as his team swept Villa aside in the opening 45 minutes.
“I was a bit anxious today because we gave a lot on Wednesday night and we came back very late on Thursday morning, and I knew that Villa were fighting to survive,” Wenger said. “For us it was maybe important to take the lead against a team who was low in confidence and then, 2-0 at half-time, I knew that the second half would certainly be a bit more difficult. But then we defended well, we didn’t manage to score the third goal but overall it was a controlled performance and a great week for us. Don’t worry, I had a few bad weeks already as well – sometimes it balances a little bit.”
Smiling when he made that last comment, Wenger could reflect on a highly satisfactory five days as well as looking forward to taking on Manchester City at the Emirates on Monday next week with his team in decent shape. Depending on Leicester’s result against Chelsea, Arsenal could go into the City game with the opportunity to be top at Christmas. “It’s a big game [against City]. We want to beat City at home,” Wenger said. “We have eight days to prepare and it will be an interesting one, but we can at least recover first and prepare then.” Although Wenger said that Alexis Sánchez was the only injured player who has a chance to return against City – “Medically my people think he will not be ready. But Sánchez being Sánchez, you never know” – the Arsenal manager has plenty of confidence in those who are fit, not least Ramsey, Mesut Özil and Giroud.
Wenger described Ramsey’s performance as “outstanding” against Villa and, once again, Wenger was full of praise for Giroud, who followed up his hat-trick against Olympiakos with his 50th Premier League goal. “I believe he’s at the top of his game. He’s questioned sometimes but finally the numbers get people to realise that he’s a good player,” Wenger said.
“I think he has improved as well technically, his link play is better. We have the option to go for a long ball, which is always a very interesting option. He’s not an electric pace player. He’s a player who likes to play with his back to goal and bring people in, so he’s not maybe spectacular individually. But he’s a very efficient and important player for the team, and he’s mentally very strong.”
Wenger offered some words of comfort for Rémi Garde, who played under him at Arsenal, although Aston Villa’s predicament looks horribly bleak. Villa have not won in the league since the opening day, which is a club-record run that stretches to 15 matches, and Garde has been unable to arrest the slump. “I think [Remi] will do a good job, he needs to be given time,” Wenger said. “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.”
With only six points from 16 matches Villa will be breaking new ground if they stay up from this position. “Every year we have seen teams survive who before Christmas people were saying have absolutely no chance. Last year one of them was Leicester. So it’s not completely a lost cause yet,” Wenger said.
Garde, however, accepts that his team have to string a few victories together in the next four matches, when they face Newcastle, West Ham, Norwich and Sunderland, to have any chance. “We will come into a period of games in the next two or three weeks that will be must-win for us. We have to win if we want to be safe,” Villa’s manager said. “I see that more of an opportunity than a problem. For that we will have to be ready to fight.”