Arsenal had no trouble dispatching Aston Villa by a score of 3-0 at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday. The Gunners have now won seven consecutive matches in the Premier League.

According to ESPN, Arsene Wenger’s side had 72% of the possession, and Aston Villa did not even bother Wojciech Szczesny with a single shot on goal. The Gunners dominated the game, and Alex McLeish’s team did little else besides roll over and accept the beating.

With the exception of a few aimless counter-attacks, Villa didn’t even carry the threat of scoring a goal. As a result, our defenders were able to push forward and swarm the opposition. Left-back Kieran Gibbs opened the scoring for the home side when his shot slipped under the arm of Shay Given, who should have made the save. It was Gibbs’ first Premier League goal.

After the match, Arsene Wenger stressed the importance of having two attacking full-backs on the pitch: “I believe what people forget when you play at home, when we have the ambition that we have, is that you need full backs who go forward. We played for a long time with centre backs as full backs and that kills your offensive drive a little bit. Then we went a lot through the middle and relied on Van Persie. Now we have a bit more variation in our build-up play and therefore we are more dangerous as well.” (Source: Arsenal.com)

Since the returns of Gibbs and Bacary Sagna from injury, we have performed much better defensively and in attack. Both of them make overlapping runs; work very well with the wide midfielder; and possess the ability to cross the ball. In addition, Gibbs and Sagna have more pace than any of the centre-backs who filled in for them.

Theo Walcott was fantastic against Aston Villa. Perhaps the looming presence of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain on the bench has motivated Theo to earn his spot in the starting eleven. His new-found skill, a good first touch, was on display on Saturday. Alex Song lifted one of his signature through passes over Villa’s backline, and Walcott settled the ball brilliantly before finishing the move by beating Given at his near post.

Two Englishmen scored for Arsenal for the first time since 1997, but it was a Spaniard who scored the best goal of the game. Late in stoppage time, Mikel Arteta’s thunder strike zipped into the back of the net. The effort from the free kick was hit with so much power that it would have tested the stability of the Great Wall of China. While Given was at fault for the first goal, no one could blame him for not getting in the way of Arteta’s blast.

Arsene Wenger has an interesting theory regarding Arteta’s technique when taking a free kick: “I prefer it when he takes free-kicks with his laces because he has short feet. Usually the guys who have good insight have bigger, longer feet, and when a guy has short feet like that they are very talented at hitting the ball with their laces. The ball floats a little bit when they take it and I think he is more built to hit the free-kicks like that.” (Source: Arsenal.com)

Part of the joy of this victory comes from the fact that Alex McLeish’s side were completely woeful. If ever a team looked relegation-bound, it was that Aston Villa side on Saturday. A disaster for the city of Birmingham it would be if McLeish was responsible for the relegation of Birmingham City and Aston Villa in consecutive seasons.

Saturday was perfect for an Arsenal supporter. Chelsea and Spurs took part in the dullest match of the season, a 0-0 draw. At the moment, we are three points ahead of Spurs and eight ahead of Chelsea. Liverpool are so terrible that they are actually farther away from us (16 points) than we are from the top of the table (12 points).

All is right in the Arsenal world.

Yossi Benayoun’s header in the 87th minute sealed the three points for the Gunners at Villa Park. Arsenal fought back after conceding an equaliser to the surprisingly dangerous Aston Villa.

Arsene Wenger has used Andrey Arshavin and Marouane Chamakh as substitutes in many matches in 2011, and both players have usually had little-to-no effect on the match. On Wednesday night, Benayoun was chosen to come into the game, and he performed brilliantly. We may have just found our impact player off the bench.

Robin van Persie curled in the corner kick, while Benayoun slipped away from his marker Gabby Agbonlahor. The Israeli’s header was directed towards the far post and beat Brad Guzan. We scored from a corner, which is amazing in itself. Benayoun scored his first Premier League goal in an Arsenal shirt, and it couldn’t have been more important.

After a poor performance against Manchester City, Theo Walcott bounced back at Villa Park. Theo’s tricky turn led to a tug by Ciaran Clark, and we were rightly awarded a penalty. Of course, the Dutchman stepped up to take it and blasted the ball into the roof of the net in the 17th minute.

Before the match, the expectation was that Alex McLeish’s side would pose no attacking threat. Villa have been absolutely dreadful against the other top sides, but they did create quite a few opportunities in this match. Part of it could have been done to our makeshift back four, which featured Francis Coquelin at right-back.

Marc Albrighton scored the 20,000th Premier League goal thanks to some terrible defending by Thomas Vermaelen and Per Mertesacker. Vermaelen tried to head the ball to Mertesacker, but the pass was too soft, and Mertesacker hurled himself towards the ball. Albrighton made a nice move by tapping it past the lumbering German with his outstretched leg. The Aston Villa winger calmly slid the ball past Szczesny.

While Vermaelen is still our strongest defender, he was most at fault for Villa’s goal. Many people will try to blame the easy target, which is Mertesacker. But Vermaelen should not be heading the ball that weakly back to his centre-back when the opposing team is pressing. The mistake might have been made because Vermaelen isn’t used to playing left-back, but it is still a bad mistake.

Another player who did not have his best performance on Wednesday night was Aaron Ramsey. He is really frustrating because he has some great games (like against Chelsea) and some terrible games (like against Villa and Spurs). There were times in the match at Villa Park where he appeared to foget how to pass the ball. Once Wilshere returns, Ramsey may have to be left out because Arteta has been impressive.

Doesn’t matter where the Arsenal play because a ridiculous decision always goes the opponent’s way. Referee  Jonathan Moss gave van Persie an absurd yellow card for diving when there was clearly contact. Maybe it would have been a soft penalty, but it was certainly not a dive.

Near the end of the match, Alan Hutton became very angry. After a clear foul on van Persie, Hutton started yelling at the Dutchman. At that point, Benayoun stood up for the star striker and had a little scuffle with Hutton. The former Spurs player was shown his first yellow, and he saw his second only a moment later after a late challenge on Thomas Vermaelen. Two yellow cards after the 90th minute. What discipline!

Really, I suppose there shouldn’t be any complaints after a win, especially when no one appears to be injured from it. The three points put Arsene Wenger’s side even with Chelsea, who visit White Hart Lane on Thursday. Liverpool played to a draw against Wigan, so we are now two points ahead of them. We will head into the Wolves match next week in 5th, unless Tottenham beat Chelsea by more than seven goals.

There are two lessons from this match. First, Yossi Benayoun should get more playing time in the Premier League. If not as a starter, then at least as a substitute. We have put up with ineffective subs like Chamakh and Arshavin for far too long. Secondly, we again battled back after conceding the equaliser, which would never have happened at the start of the season.