Well that was one of the most comfortable victories I think I will witness this season. The Arsenal set off at a great pace and it was a pleasure to watch the boys not rest on their laurels and actually keep pressing for the majority of the game.

And what a goal from Arteta who seems to be growing into this Arsenal team the longer the season goes on.

Szczesny: 6. Not the busiest of afternoons for the Arsenal number 1, few decent catches, but he needs to up his concentration levels on the quieter afternoons, a few poor distributions, but overall comfortable.

Sagna: 7. Another solid performance from the best right back in the premier league. Won every header and jockeyed Aston villa’s left side all afternoon. Constant threat down the right and gave great support to Theo.

Djourou: 6 Didn’t have loads to do, got caught by Heskey’s elbow in the first 5 minutes, other than that he was fairly untroubled and stuck to his task well.

Vermaelen: 7 Another impressive performance from the Belgian, up and down the pitch all afternoon and his covering at the back was spot on. Growing into the future Arsenal captain.

Gibbs: 7 played well in attack today and took his goal well even though Given will look at himself as it was a pretty weak shot, but Gibbs deserves that after all his injuries. Needs to concentrate on his defending a bit more against tougher opposition.

Song: 7 Mr consistent as I like to call him. Cleared up a lot of the mess and was clever going forward, seen him have better games, but he did what was necessary today.

Rosicky: 7 Will the real Tomas Rosicky please stand up. Revelation over the past 6 weeks and was in top form today, faded a bit in the 2nd half but that is understandable looking at the shift he put in.

Arteta: 9 - Man Of the Match. Well what a game from the Spaniard. Covered every inch of grass, hassled their midfield all afternoon, won virtually every tackle, was superb going forward and the freekick just about summed up his afternoon. Class.

Walcott: 8 another excellent performance from the mercurial striker/winger. Was a constant threat down the right and still looked pretty threatening when he swapped sides briefly with Gervinho.

Van Persie: 6 Quiet afternoon by his standards. Started brightly but nothing really fell his way, run around a bit which is nice to see, but I would have taken him off with 15mins to go and give one of the other strikers a run out and wrap him up in cotton wool.

Gervinho: 6. Not his greatest afternoon. Thankfully he does put a shift in and did cover Gibbs well on Villa’s rare attacks, but his touch was pretty awful today.

Subs: Ramsey 6, run around a lot and had a decent shot, steadied the ship in the second half.

Santos 5, gave away possession bit too much but it was his first game back for a long time so it will take him to adjust.

Ox-lade Chamberlain 6, great run in the 2nd half which nearly resulted in a penalty, constant threat for 16 mins

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