Aston Villa 1-2 Arsenal: The Gunners return to the top of the table.

Unlike the first leg, Arsene Wenger's team secured a relatively easy and convincing victory, taking an early 2-0 lead thanks to goals from Jack Wilshere and Olivier Giroud.

Arsenal secured a convincing victory against Aston Villa.

Goal:

Aston Villa: Benteke (76')

Arsenal: Wilshere (34'), Giroud (35')

ArsenalArsenal entered the match at Villa Park with immense confidence, not only because the "Gunners" had been unbeaten there since 1998, but also because of the stark contrast in form between them and their opponents Aston Villa. While the North London giants had just defeated Tottenham in the third round of the FA Cup, Paul Lambert's team had just suffered a defeat at home against the underdog Sheffield United.

Unsurprisingly, the Gunners started better and took the initiative. Giroud had the first chance early on with a header that went just wide of the post from a cross from the right wing by Bacary Sagna.

Villa were then forced to make substitutions when defender Nathan Baker took a powerful shot from Serge Gnabry straight to the face. Immediately after Leandro Bacuna came on as a substitute, Arsenal nearly conceded a goal when Karim El Ahmadi received the ball and his close-range shot went just over the crossbar.

Following this incident, the students ofWengerThey continued to control the game and quickly scored two goals in quick succession within seconds.

First, Wilshere opened the scoring in the 34th minute thanks to a well-executed combination originating from Mesut Oezil, who had previously played a clever through pass to Nacho Monreal, allowing him to evade Matt Lowton's marking on the right wing.

In the very next attacking move, the visitors scored their second goal, and once again Wilshere played a major role. The English midfielder stole the ball from Fabien Delph and delivered a perfect pass to Giroud, who was surging forward. The former Montpellier striker weaved past two defenders before beating goalkeeper Brad Guzan with a gentle shot into the far corner.

Giroud doubled the lead for the away team.

It wasn't until the 76th minute that the home fans had reason to celebrate when Christian Benteke headed the ball into Wojciech Szczesny's net from a cross from the right wing by Lowton. It's also worth mentioning Santi Cazorla's regrettable misplaced pass earlier, which put the Villa full-back in a comfortable position before delivering a precise assist for the Belgian striker.

However, that was all Villa could do. Arsenal successfully defended their 2-1 lead in the final 15 minutes of the match and secured the three points. With this result, the Gunners comfortably overtook Man City and Chelsea to reclaim the top spot in the league.

STARTING LINEUP:

Aston Villa: Guzan, Lowton, Luna, Clark, Baker (Bacuna 21' ), Vlaar, El Ahmadi (Weimann 73'), Westwood, Delph, Benteke, Agbonlahor

Arsenal: Szczesny, Sagna, Monreal (Gibbs 66'), Koscielny, Mertesacker, Flamini, Gnabry (Rosicky 69'), Wilshere, Oezil, Cazorla, Giroud.

According to Bongdaplus