A brace from Aaron Ramsey and a first goal for Mathieu Flamini since his return to Arsenal saw off a dull Cardiff City.
City, coming off the back of a 2-2 draw against Manchester United last week had outlined their intent on avoiding an unwanted return to The Championship. But Arsenal are pursuing their own ambition this season and did not let a confident Cardiff City side stand in their way.
Kieran Gibbs recovered from the illness that kept him sidelined during Arsenal’s game against Marseille, and Mikel Arteta and Santi Cazorla joined him in being restored to the starting line-up.
It was almost a carbon copy start of Tuesday’s game; Jack Wilshere nearly putting The Gunners one-up after some beautiful triangular, one-touch football that finished with the resurgent talent blasting the frame of the goal.
It was then Cardiff’s turn to attack after a splendid cross from Kevin Theophile-Catherine saw Fraizer Campbell direct his header wide.
Then a bizarre situation involving Olivier Giroud and the linesman occurred. The former thought he was offside and by the time he had realised he was not, he found himself out of possession. Footage of the move showed that Giroud was in fact offside but the linesman failed to spot it. The opportunity was a real chance for the French forward to score.
Now if there was a pre-match script it would have mentioned Aaron Ramsey scoring in his homeland and against his former club. There must have been one and Ramsey must have read it. Just before the 30th minute the unmarked Welshman neatly headed away Mesut Ozil’s perfectly placed cross.
One-nil up at the break would have pleased Arsene Wenger but what was to come would have delighted him even more.
Cardiff City enjoyed some decent spells during the opening stages of the second half but it was Arsenal who was making all the chances.
Aaron Ramsey shrugged off the Cardiff defence as he glided along the by-line before finding Giroud who could only shoot into the disorganised defence.
Campbell again demonstrated his nodding abilities as he aimed a powerful header towards the Arsenal goal but this was met by an incredibly fast-reacting Wojciech Szczesny who managed to meet the shot.
Szczesny was again on top form and spotted the Cardiff attack early on as he came out to collect the ball.
Previously to the match, Szczesny had kept 50 cleansheets from 125 appearances.
Ozil doubled his assist tally for the match as he slipped in Mathieu Flamini who made no mistake and fired into the top-right corner.
The game was drawing to a close but Aaron Ramsey was by no means complacent with the scoreline that stood; Ramsey made it three after an unselfish pass from Theo Walcott presented the former Cardiff player with an easy second of the game. The counterattacking nature of the third goal was executed superbly by the league leaders.
Aaron Ramsey was unsurprisingly named Man of The Match and Arsenal will enjoy the coach journey back to London with yet another three points in the bag.
Arsenal go seven points clear and face Premier League new-boys Hull City at Emirates in midweek.
Written by: James Harrod
Twitter: @goonerscore
Blog: http://goonerscore.wordpress.com
City, coming off the back of a 2-2 draw against Manchester United last week had outlined their intent on avoiding an unwanted return to The Championship. But Arsenal are pursuing their own ambition this season and did not let a confident Cardiff City side stand in their way.
Kieran Gibbs recovered from the illness that kept him sidelined during Arsenal’s game against Marseille, and Mikel Arteta and Santi Cazorla joined him in being restored to the starting line-up.
It was almost a carbon copy start of Tuesday’s game; Jack Wilshere nearly putting The Gunners one-up after some beautiful triangular, one-touch football that finished with the resurgent talent blasting the frame of the goal.
It was then Cardiff’s turn to attack after a splendid cross from Kevin Theophile-Catherine saw Fraizer Campbell direct his header wide.
Then a bizarre situation involving Olivier Giroud and the linesman occurred. The former thought he was offside and by the time he had realised he was not, he found himself out of possession. Footage of the move showed that Giroud was in fact offside but the linesman failed to spot it. The opportunity was a real chance for the French forward to score.
Now if there was a pre-match script it would have mentioned Aaron Ramsey scoring in his homeland and against his former club. There must have been one and Ramsey must have read it. Just before the 30th minute the unmarked Welshman neatly headed away Mesut Ozil’s perfectly placed cross.
One-nil up at the break would have pleased Arsene Wenger but what was to come would have delighted him even more.
Cardiff City enjoyed some decent spells during the opening stages of the second half but it was Arsenal who was making all the chances.
Aaron Ramsey shrugged off the Cardiff defence as he glided along the by-line before finding Giroud who could only shoot into the disorganised defence.
Campbell again demonstrated his nodding abilities as he aimed a powerful header towards the Arsenal goal but this was met by an incredibly fast-reacting Wojciech Szczesny who managed to meet the shot.
Szczesny was again on top form and spotted the Cardiff attack early on as he came out to collect the ball.
Previously to the match, Szczesny had kept 50 cleansheets from 125 appearances.
Ozil doubled his assist tally for the match as he slipped in Mathieu Flamini who made no mistake and fired into the top-right corner.
The game was drawing to a close but Aaron Ramsey was by no means complacent with the scoreline that stood; Ramsey made it three after an unselfish pass from Theo Walcott presented the former Cardiff player with an easy second of the game. The counterattacking nature of the third goal was executed superbly by the league leaders.
Aaron Ramsey was unsurprisingly named Man of The Match and Arsenal will enjoy the coach journey back to London with yet another three points in the bag.
Arsenal go seven points clear and face Premier League new-boys Hull City at Emirates in midweek.
Written by: James Harrod
Twitter: @goonerscore
Blog: http://goonerscore.wordpress.com