Aston Villa beat woeful Arsenal 2-1 at Emirates – English Premier League recap
Arsenal continue to plunge further down as the ongoing 2010-11 season heads to a close, and in just matter of weeks they have transformed from title contenders to a team fighting to hold on to 3rd place in the English Premier League.
Aston Villa ran Arsenal ragged at the Emirates on Sunday as the away team beat them 2-1.
Darren Bent has had a hot and cold season, but he was hot on the day against Arsenal as his brace in first quarter of the first half handed Aston Villa the win.
Arsenal are now in danger of losing out on the 3rd place on the League table to Manchester City who can earn a chance to qualify directly for the Champions League without having to play a pre-tournament qualifier.
Arsene Wenger, the boss of Arsenal, will no doubt have his say about some refereeing decisions by http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Oliver-c28477. There was a penalty claim by Arsenal in the first half that was turned down and later on, a goal from a Marouane Chamakh header was ruled out.
However, Wenger will have to admit that his team was off its game and that caused them to lose focus and drop three more crucial points.
As the game kicked off at the Emirates, there were plenty of empty seats as fans are dejected by the performance of their team as another barren season ends.
The start to the game was scrappy. Both teams struggled to keep hold of the ball and there were no decent moves in first ten minutes as both sides looked tentative.
Aston Villa came into the game knowing that they needed at least a point to stay in the League, and they took the much-needed lead after eleven minutes.
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Kyle-Walker-c21566 played a delightful chipped through ball over Sebastian Squillaci and found Darrent Bent who had made an excellent run to beat the off side trap. The former Spurs player controlled the ball well and used the front of his boot to guide the ball
home past http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Wojciech-Szczesny-c36998.
Arsenal did not know what had hit them, and they hardly had time to recover when http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Darren-Bent-c10358 came back to hurt them.
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Ashley-Young-c6813 played a terrific through ball to Bent who calmly knocked the ball in to make it 2-0.
Aston Villa did not look like a side that has not won in last three games and remained in complete control of the first half. As the half time ended, the crowd booed as the home fans showed their disgust on the performance of their team.
Arsenal came back in the second half with renewed vigour and attacked Aston Villa goal on a number of times. Villa though stood firm and kept out the threat of the home side.
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Marouane-Chamakh-c24294 looked to have reduced the deficit but his headed goal was disallowed as the referee thought that he had fouled Villa
defender in his effort to win the ball.
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Robin-van-Persie-c31380 though made it 2-1 close to the end to get his 17th goal of the season. However, it was a little too late as Arsenal suffered a 2-1 defeat.
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