Arsenal close on top four as Southampton slip

Arsenal's Olivier Giroud (L) lifts the ball over Aston Villa's goalkeeper Brad Guzan (R) to score the opening goal during the English Premier League football match at the Emirates Stadium in London. (AFP/ADRIAN DENNIS)

LONDON: Olivier Giroud, Mesut Ozil and Santi Cazorla sparkled as Arsenal closed on the Premier League's top four by crushing goal-shy Aston Villa 5-0 at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday (Feb 1).

Ozil freed Giroud to open the scoring in the eighth minute and the France striker returned the favour in the second half before goals from Theo Walcott, Cazorla and Hector Bellerin completed a one-sided victory.

It was a fifth consecutive win in all competitions for Arsene Wenger's men and took them level on points with fourth-place Southampton, who saw Ryan Bertrand sent off in a 1-0 loss at home to Swansea City.

"You cannot fault anyone's performance," Wenger told Sky Sports. "Mesut did well. It takes a while to get that sharpness back. We had a rigorous attitude defensively. Even at 4-0, 5-0 up, people were willing to work back. We want to play collectively and offensively to the end."

The defeat saw Paul Lambert's Villa - three points above the relegation zone in 16th place - set an unwanted club record of six consecutive league games without scoring.

The Midlands club, who host leaders Chelsea next weekend, have gone 10 hours and 12 minutes since Christian Benteke found the net against Manchester United on December 20.

"It is difficult. When you don't score, you don't win games," Lambert said. "You have to keep working hard in training and hopefully it turns around. We had chances to score, but you have to take them."

Ozil was making his first league start since Oct 5 and he immediately made an impact by cleverly using the outside of his left foot to flick a pass through to Giroud. The Frenchman had only Brad Guzan to beat and after briefly getting ahead of the ball, he calmly chipped the Villa goalkeeper to register his fifth goal in his last six league appearances.

SANCHEZ ABSENT

After Cazorla had hit the post, Ozil doubled Arsenal's lead 11 minutes into the second half, gliding onto an elegant, piercing pass from Giroud and trundling a shot into the bottom-right corner.

Walcott had had to wait even longer for a league start, having last started on New Year's Day 2014 due to a serious knee injury, and he marked the occasion by gathering Cazorla's pass and curling home in the 63rd minute.

Villa's porous defence meant that Alexis Sanchez's absence with a hamstring problem was barely felt by Arsenal and after Giroud had hit the bar with a header, Cazorla added a fourth goal from the penalty spot.

Guzan was penalised for tripping substitute Chuba Akpom and despite getting a firm hand to Cazorla's powerful spot-kick, which was hit straight at him, the American could not keep it out.

Young full-back Bellerin got in on the act in injury time, meeting Cazorla's lay-off with a precise, side-foot shot from 20 yards that went in via the base of the left-hand post.

Buoyed by recent wins over Arsenal and Manchester United, Southampton made an enterprising start against Swansea at St Mary's, with Nathaniel Clyne teeing up James Ward-Prowse for a shot that Lukasz Fabianski saved.

But after hitting the post from long range early in the second half, Jonjo Shelvey gave Swansea a smash-and-grab win in the 83rd minute by crashing a shot inside Fraser Forster's right-hand post from 25 yards.

Swansea captain Ashley Williams produced two goal-line blocks in quick succession to deny Sadio Mane an equaliser before Bertrand saw red for an ugly challenge on Modou Barrow, who was stretchered off.

Shelvey's goal lifted Swansea to ninth place and left Southampton above Arsenal on goal difference alone in the fourth and final Champions League qualifying berth.