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Arsenal continued their fabulous away form with a resounding 0-3 win against Cardiff City. And mind you, this Arsenal team is still without the likes of Lukas Podolski & Alex Oxlade Chamberlain to name a few. Former Cardiff man, Aaron Ramsey struck twice in the gunner’s 0-3 win.
Let’s have a look at the match analysis.
Starting XI
Arsene Wenger opted to continue with the same team that played against Southampton last week. Walcott could only manage a place on the bench. Mathieu Flamini, who returned against Marseille following his suspension, came on as a substitute in the second half in place of Santi Cazorla. Walcott too came on as a substitute in place of Özil in the 90th minute of the match.
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Starting Line-up’s
On the other hand, Cardiff made just one change, with Peter Odemwingie making way for Bo-Kyung Kim, the man who equalised in the stoppage time against Manchester United last week. However, Odemwingie came on as a 2nd half substitute for Fraizer Campbell.
This is how the team’s lined up
First Half
Jack Wilshere started off from where he left in the mid week against Marseille, getting past defenders and taking a shot with less than 75 secs into the match. But as luck would have it, the shot got deflected off the top of the bar and the score remained 0-0.
Arsenal got an injury scare pretty early into the match, with two of their defenders, Bacary Sagna and Per Mertesacker colliding in air. It was a nasty collision, and looked as though the big German would not be able to continue and Vermaelen was seen warming up, but it was all okay once the German got up on his feet. It took a bit of time for Mertesacker to settle down and the match to continue.
The scoring could have opened in the 16th minute of the game, when Özil looked to have flicked the ball towards Giroud, who stopped inside the penalty area with no defender around him, and assumed himself to be in an offside position, but interestingly, the assistant referee’s flag stayed down and before Giroud could react, the defender blocked his shot, a glorious chance went begging early in the match.
Aaron Ramsey, the Wales international and former Cardiff man, broke the deadlock and opened the scoring in the 29th minute with a fine header from an Özil assist into the box. Ramsey jumped high up, leaning back and provided the correct direction to the ball, leaving the keeper with no option.
The first half continued with Arsenal dominating possession, and Cardiff making the Arsenal midfielders work hard to find small spaces in their defence.
Second Half
The first chance of the second half fell to Arsenal, when Ramsey found Giroud 8 yards out with a superb pass from the by-line, but the Frenchman’s shot was cleared off the line by Ben Turner. Arsenal dominated the early part of the second half, but Cardiff players were testing the defensive resilience displayed by the Arsenal team this season.
Cardiff City got their chance to equalise in the 52nd minute, but a magnificent save from Szcz?sny saw Fraizer Campbell’s header go out for a corner. Cardiff continued their attack, this time Whittingham taking a shot at goal, which was well blocked by Arteta. Seeing the danger from the opposition, Arsenal controlled possession and took out the pace of Cardiff and slowed down the game a bit. Cardiff continued on their search for an equaliser, by bringing on Peter Odemwingie in place of Fraizer Campbell.
The match continued at a relatively normal pace, with both sides looking to score. Arsenal’s second half substitute, Mathieu Flamini sealed 3 points for the gunners with a stunning finish of a Mesut Özil assist. The man who came on to provide stability to the back four, brought along a goal for himself and a sure shot 3 points for his team.
And the Welshman, Aaron Ramsey added a second goal to his name in the added time, with Walcott laying the ball into Ramsey’s path and Ramsey finding the back of the net to finish the match.
Arsenal dominated the match and came out deserved winners. Cardiff City fans showed their love and respect for Ramsey, who scored twice, yet didn’t celebrate his goals, this goes on to show the amount of respect Ramsey still has for his former club.
Aaron Ramsey used his twitter account to acknowledge the love and support he received from the Cardiff fans.
Ramsey’s message to Cardiff fans
This is what Arsene Wenger had to say after the match,
On Ramsey:
‘I think that two or three years ago he wasn’t capable of playing just his game. Everyone was impressed by the occasion, so it just shows you how mature he is now. He just came here today, played his game as he does usually and scored two great goals.’
“You are always torn between being happy to score and happy you can win the game, but out of respect for the club where he was educated he didn’t celebrate, I have a big respect for the Cardiff City fans reception for Ramsey.”
On Mesut Özil:
“Mesut has that in him, at any moment he can kill you with a pass. Today, even though he was one of those players that looked a little bit tired at some stage, overall the team was efficient.”
Arsene Wenger added the following,
‘Very big satisfaction because we did a very good defensive performance and were in control of the game in a place where many teams suffer. Overall, we kept the concentration right and it was a convincing 3-0.’
Malky Mackay had the following to say,
“We were playing against the best, and we were not out of our league,” Malky Mackay said. “We limited their chances for most of the game, and might have got back to 1-1 but for a fantastic save. We had to go for it in the end, but I make no apologies for that. We have played most of the leading sides now and every time we have been competitive, so that gives me hope we can still be in this league next season.”
