English Premier League: Manchester United badly bourned

Birmingham (England): Olivier Giroud and Aaron Ramsey scored as Arsenal capped a memorable week by climbing to the Premier League summit with a 2-0 victory over ailing Aston Villa on Sunday.

 

On Saturday, Louis van Gaal was left facing growing pressure after Josh King’s goal earned Bournemouth a 2-1 win and condemned Manchester United to a second costly defeat in a week.

 

Having been forced to defend his record in the face of heavy criticism following his side’s Champions League exit at Wolfsburg, United manager Van Gaal again saw his team undone by alarming defensive lapses.

 

Goalkeeper David de Gea was at fault for Junior Stanislas’s second-minute opener — a corner that went straight in — while Daley Blind allowed former United youngster King to score after Marouane Fellaini had equalised.

 

This was only United’s third defeat of the Premier League season, but it meant that they missed out on the chance to improve on fourth place and close the three-point gap on leaders Manchester City.

 

With Van Gaal already coming under fire over his side’s style of play and the limitations of his squad despite heavy investment in new players, it will have done nothing to strengthen the Dutchman’s position.

 

For Bournemouth, promoted from the Championship last season, this was another stunning result that came on the back of last weekend’s 1-0 win at Chelsea and moved the south-coast club up to 14th position.

 

Van Gaal’s efforts to get United’s season back on track were hampered by a number of fresh injuries this week, which, together with German captain Bastian Schweinsteiger’s suspension, left him without nine senior players.

 

That meant Guillermo Varela and Cameron Borthwick-Jackson were making their first EPL starts while Paddy McNair lined up alongside Blind at the centre of a callow back four.

 

 

After completing a remarkable turnaround in their Champions League fortunes to qualify once again for the knockout stages, Arsene Wenger’s side moved above Manchester City and Leicester City in the domestic title race by getting the better of the bottom-of-the-table side at Villa Park.

 

Giroud, hat-trick hero of the triumph over Olympiakos that secured their Champions League passage, set them on their way with a penalty, his 50th Premier League goal, before Ramsey added a second by starting and finishing a swift counter-attack.

 

Those first-half goals were enough to give Wenger victory over a Villa side managed by fellow Frenchman Remi Garde, who was the first player he signed as Arsenal manager.

 

It was a further blow to Garde’s faint hopes of masterminding a great escape for the West Midlands club, who are well adrift at the bottom of the table and have now gone a club-record 15 matches without a win since an opening-day triumph at Bournemouth.

 

Giroud’s opener, calmly stroked home from the penalty spot in the eighth minute, was his 11th goal in 13 games and 16th of the season. Villa could ill afford to hand the Gunners an early impetus, but that was exactly what they did when Alan Hutton used both hands to haul back Theo Walcott.

 

Referee Kevin Friend took a few seconds of deliberation before eventually pointing to the spot and Giroud duly obliged by sending Brad Guzan the wrong way from the spot.

 

Giroud went close to giving Arsenal the comfort of a two-goal cushion when he flicked Mesut Ozil’s free-kick beyond the advancing Guzan, but Rudy Gestede came to Villa’s rescue with a last-ditch clearance.

 

There was some encouragement for Villa when Petr Cech flapped at a deep cross from Hutton when under pressure from Gestede, but although the ball dropped kindly for Jordan Veretout on the edge of the box, he snatched at the chance and it flew well wide.

 

Arsenal were looking threatening every time they ventured into Villa territory and both Laurent Koscielny and Joel Campbell were only inches away from getting on the end of menacing crosses as the home side’s defence struggled to contain the visitors.

 

It was little surprise when they got their reward with a breakaway goal seven minutes before the break that was started and finished by Ramsey. 

The Welshman won a decisive tackle to dispossess Idrissa Gueye deep in his own half and started a move that continued with Walcott releasing Ozil.

 

Although the German star had a clear path to goal himself, he unselfishly squared the ball for Ramsey to claim his reward for his determination and energy by steering it into an empty net.