Arsenal kept their top-four bid on track with a comfortable 1-0 win over Aston Villa in the Premier League. The Gunners saw their winning run come to an end with defeat to Liverpool at the Emirates in midweek and faced a short turnaround ahead of a potentially tricky trip to Villa Park, but they make simple work of the task at hand.
Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta had said the scheduling of his side’s meeting with Villa was “not fair” but victory now puts pressure on top-four rivals Manchester United, West Ham and Tottenham Hotspur and sees the Gunners strengthen their Champions League qualification hopes ahead of the rest of the weekend’s fixtures.
Aston Villa saw a run of three straight victories under Steven Gerrard come to an end at West Ham last Sunday, as Andriy Yarmolenko helped seal an emotional win for the Hammers. The form of Philippe Coutinho has helped take Villa into the top half of the table and Gerrard’s side hoped to get back to winning ways in front of their own fans, but it wasn’t to be.
Follow live reaction from Aston Villa vs Arsenal in the Premier League’s early fixture, below:
