Arsene Wenger singled out Aaron Ramsey and Olivier Giroud for their performance in Arsenal’s comfortable 2-0 win over Aston Villa.
Both were on the scoresheet to send Arsenal to the summit of the table – for 24 hours at least.
Giroud was on target from the spot after eight minutes and Ramsey finished off a fantastic flowing counter attack midway through the first half, which was enough for the Gunners to cruise to victory in the midlands.
Afterwards, Wenger said moving Ramsey wide was a successful learning experience for the orthodox central midfield, who is back in his favoured position to great effect.
He had an outstanding performance today. I think of course he is naturally more of a central midfielder and I pushed him out wide for a while because I believe we have seen many times that when players are pushed against the line they need to shorten their technique. When they come back into the middle again, they are better players.
Since returning alongside Mathieu Flamini last weekend against Sunderland, the Welshman has scored and assisted twice, a clear signal of his confidence at being the dictator in the middle.
This result sealed the perfect week of three successive wins. It was also a great week for Giroud. He has scored five in that time and his goal today took him to 50 Premier League goals.
I believe he is at the top of his game and he is questioned sometimes, Wenger said.
Finally, the numbers get people to realise he is a good player. [With] Petr Cech they didn’t need [the numbers] but for Giroud [he needs it]. He has improved, his link play is better and when we have the option for a long ball he is a very interesting option.
In response to why the Frenchman doesn’t get much praise, Wenger claimed it was because of his style of play.
Because he does not have electric pace. He is more of a player who plays with his back to goal and brings other people in, so maybe he is spectacular individually with his runs without the ball. He is very efficient and a very important player for the team. He is also mentally very strong.
Arsenal now have eight days to rest before the visit of Manchester City, however, tomorrow night’s game involving Leicester City will determine whether they will enter that showdown as the league leaders.
Let’s see tomorrow. We have Leicester [against] Chelsea and if Leicester beat Chelsea they have a very good chance to be top of the league at Christmas. It is a big game and we want to win at home and beat City at home. There are now eight days to prepare and it will be an interesting one but we can at least recover and prepare then.
