Cazorla offers Arsenal
relief
A deadly double from Santi
Cazorla saw Arsenal return to
winning ways as they edged out
Aston Villa 2-1 at Emirates
Stadium. On the back of a tough week
which had seen the Gunners
crash out of the FA Cup and
suffer a UEFA Champions League
battering at the hands of Bayern
Munich, one very early effort from Cazorla and one very late
one, after Andreas Weimann had
levelled for the visitors, offered
welcome relief to Arsene Wenger
and his troops - who are now
just one point adrift of the top four. Watched by owner Stan Kroenke,
making a rare visit to north
London, Arsenal started well. Jack
Wilshere capitalised on a poor
backpass and raced at goal, but
the midfielder fired straight at Brad Guzan. Cazorla then lifted the quiet
atmosphere inside the Emirates
with Arsenal's opener in the sixth
minute. Nathan Baker blocked
Cazorla's initial shot after some
good work by Wilshere, but the Spaniard made no mistake with
his second effort, slotting past
Guzan with a beautiful curling
effort. Urged on by an animated Paul
Lambert from the touchline, Villa
looked to hit straight back.
Charles N'Zogbia raced down the
right past Thomas Vermaelen and
pulled the ball back for Gabriel Agbonlahor but Wojciech Szczesny
saved. Villa's attacks led to a nervous
atmosphere inside the Emirates,
but Theo Walcott brought them
to the edge of their seats with a
teasing curler that flew inches
over Guzan's goal. Arsenal's passing was often
sloppy and the home fans became
annoyed at the Gunners'
attempts to pass the ball in to
the net. The hosts did produce
an impressive move just before the break, though, with Cazorla
finding Olivier Giroud, but Guzan
was equal to the Frenchman's
effort. Arsenal started to dominate the
game again after the break, but
again, they were reluctant to
shoot on goal, much to the
annoyance of the home crowd. With Arsenal throwing so many
players forward, they were left
vulnerable at the back. Weimann
went on another rampaging
counter down the right and
crossed for Agbonlahor, but the forward headed wide. Wenger was forced into a change
just after the hour when Abou
Diaby hobbled off with another
injury. Aaron Ramsey came on in
his place. Villa then stunned the home side
by equalising on 68 minutes. Carl
Jenkinson failed to clear a long
punt down field, the ball made its
way to Weimann and he went on
a blistering 40-yard run before beating Szczesny with a weak
shot. Wenger rose from his bench and
cast a disappointed glare at his
team. His troubles nearly
worsened soon after when
Christian Benteke found space at
the back post but Per Mertesacker got in front of the
Belgian before he could head on
goal. Guzan saved brilliantly to deny
Giroud from point-blank range as
Arsenal continued to pile forward,
and the Gunners finally got their
reward five minutes from time
when Nacho Monreal swung the ball into the box and Cazorla
converted, much to the relief of
Wenger and the home support.
Elsewhere, Arsenal pulled within a
point of arch-rivals Tottenham -
for a short while, at least - in
the race for fourth, as Santi
Cazorla completed a brace late on
to down luckless Aston Villa 2-1. The Spaniard combined with
former Malaga team-mate Nacho
Monreal to beat Brad Guzan for
the second time in the afternoon
with just five minutes remaining,
giving Gunners fans - not to mention manager Arsene Wenger
- some respite after a difficult
week. Cazorla had also opened the
scoring after five minutes with a
driven right-footed shot across
the goalkeeper, but Andreas
Weimann - converting from a
Charles N'Zogbia header after another mistake from Wojciech
Szczesny - had briefly given Paul
Lambert's side hope of a surprise
point when he found the net with
20 minutes still to play. Instead, however, the Villans
slipped back into the relegation
zone on goal difference. Everton's hopes of Champions
League qualification were further
diminished after they fell to a
late 2-1 defeat against Norwich
City at Carrow Road. Goals for Kei Kamara - his first in
English football - and Grant Holt -
his first in nine games - propelled
the Canaries to a dramatic late
victory, cancelling out Leon
Osman's earlier finish. The result was perhaps harsh on
the Toffees, who dominated the
contest for large spells, but the
likes of Marouane Fellaini were
guilty of wasting good openings
as the Merseyside team's profligacy in attack ultimately
came to cost them. David Moyes' side are now six
points behind Spurs having played
a game more, while Norwich sit
eight points clear of the
relegation battle at the bottom. In the thick of that battle, Wigan
picked up a crucial three points
with an emphatic 3-0 away win
over fellow strugglers Reading,
who also had striker Pavel
Pogrebnyak sent off. The Latics had two goals just
before half-time from Arouna
Kone to thank as they took the
points, the African forward
turning home from close range at
a corner to break the deadlock, before rifling home a low shot
from the edge of the area barely
two minutes later. A third goal - this time for
Maynor Figueroa, who profited
from a Franco di Santo touch to
turn home in front of Reading
goalkeeper Adam Federici -
effectively ended the contest two minutes after the restart,
before Figueroa was fouled by
Pogrebnyak in an offence that
saw the Russian dismissed. Despite the numerical
disadvantage Reading created a
few opportunities to get back
into the match, but the likes of
Jobi McAnuff and Ian Harte never
came up with quite the right effort to breach Ali Al-Habsi's
defence. On-loan Chelsea striker Romelu
Lukaku scored twice as West
Brom defeated Sunderland 2-1 at
The Hawthorns. Lukaku was initially entrusted
with the responsibility of
converting from the spot after
Craig Gardner was adjudged to
have handled in the box in the
first half, and the Belgian made no mistake as he placed his effort
beyond compatriot Simon Mignolet
to put the Baggies on course for
victory. Midway through the second half
Lukaku completed a brace with a
powerful drive into the bottom
corner from 20 yards, before
Stephane Sessegnon halved the
deficit to set up a tense final ten minutes. Lukaku was the star of the show,
however, and could have had a
hat-trick after he saw what
appeared to be a perfectly good
goal ruled out for offside just
minutes before Gardner's illegal intervention, as the youngster
continued to terrorise the
Sunderland defence all afternoon. With Peter Odemwingie - slowly
welcomed back into the fold -
watching from among the
substitutes, Lukaku and Shane
Long impressed as a partnership,
although Sunderland did have their chances; Sessegnon in
particular seeing a goalbound
effort cleared away by the alert
Youssouf Mulumbu as his goal,
after receiving the ball from
James McClean in the box, proved insufficient. In the day's early kick-off, Dimitar
Berbatov produced a stunning
volley to secure all three points
for Fulham against Stoke City as
the match ended 1-0 - but the
visitors to Craven Cottage were their own worst enemies and
spurned a number of chances to
draw level, including a penalty. Despite standing within two yards
of where the ball flew into the
net, Stoke goalkeeper Asmir
Begovic cannot be blamed for
letting in the Bulgarian's bending
shot. Robert Huth headed away Sascha
Riether's out-swinging cross but
it only looped as far as Berbatov
and in languid style he made the
visitors pay. Stoke had two good chances to
draw level in the second half
through Peter Crouch firstly and
then Jonathan Walters. The latter saw his penalty, given
for a handball by Ashkan Dejagah,
saved by Mark Schwarzer on 55
minutes. The Australian's
excellent, or fortuitous,
anticipation meant he was almost waiting for Walters' penalty to
arrive after diving early to his
right.