Premier League: Arsenal 3 Aston Villa 0

Arsenal pulled away from top-four chasing rivals Tottenham and Chelsea after a comfortable 3-0 win against Aston Villa at the Emirates.

The Gunners were dominant in the first half and took the lead when Kieran Gibbs netted his first Premier League goal thanks to an unconvincing attempt of a save from Shay Given.

Theo Walcott doubled the score later in the half before a confident display in the second which brought a third from a Mikel Arteta free-kick.

The home side dominated the opening spells of possession, although the visitors mustered the first chance after a swift counter-attack from an Arsenal corner. Marc Albrighton rushed clear, as Villa had three on two, but smashed his effort high and wide.

From then on, though, it was very much one-way traffic.

Great work from Bacary Sagna and Walcott on the right-flank saw the full-back advance forward before finding Robin van Persie in the box. The Dutchman flicked it with his heel into the path on Walcott, who had continued his run, but the winger’s shot was straight at Given.

The deadlock was broken after quarter of an hour, Gibbs receiving the ball from Gervinho inside the opponents’ box after he was given far too much room and was allowed to hit it with the ball slipping under the Villa keeper.

And it wasn’t long before the hosts doubled their lead.

Carlos Cuellar gifted the ball to Alex Song with a poor pass from the back, the Cameroon midfielder then found Walcott with a delightful ball over the top before the winger controlled wonderfully and produced a calm finish 25 minutes in.

That second goal signalled a period of meltdown for Alex McLeish’s men.

A minute later Thomas Vermaelen fired a low cross towards Van Persie who caught it with his shin and missed the target.

Given was then forced into a top save from Arteta, the Irish keeper doing well to tip over the Spaniard’s long range drive.

Villa did manage to get a slight foothold in the game after that, seeing their share of possession rise, but it was Arsenal who conjured up the last chance of the half.

With just over five minutes until the break, Song played Van Persie in beyond the visitors’ defence. Initially the ball got stuck under his boots, but a lovely drawback helped the captain beat a scrambling Given presenting him with an open goal, however the striker was denied by some brilliant positioning from Stephen Warnock who blocked his shot off the line.

Villa looked more lively at the start of the second half but failed to create any real chances, although they did have a shout for a penalty turned down when Gabriel Agbonlahor appealed for handball from Johan Djourou.

Gary Gardner brought down Tomas Rosicky in a dangerous area but Arteta’s free-kick hit the wall. Wojciech Szczesny then gave the ball straight to Villa when trying to launch a quick move, before catching the cross and managing to successfully start a counterattack but Gervinho’s end cross was too far ahead of his team-mates.

Rosicky had two decent chances in the space of five minutes later in the half. Firstly Gibbs whipped in a cross from the left with the ball falling to the Czech midfielder after Walcott was beaten in air, but his volley was deflected wide.

The second effort forced another decent stop from Given, the 31-year-old’s swerving effort parried away by the keeper.

Arteta was next in line to test Given, but his free-kick from a wide left position was tipped over by the 35-year-old.

Aaron Ramsey then fired a low shot towards goal after a neat turn away from his man, however the shot went narrowly wide of the mark.

Andreas Weimann had one final chance for the visitors as the ball fell to him behind the defence, the forward hesitated though and allowed Djourou to get back and block the shot.

The Gunners then rubbed salt in the wounds by adding a late third in stoppage time with a fantastic free-kick from Arteta that left Given with no chance.

The result sees Wenger’s men go three points ahead of bitter rivals Tottenham, who drew 0-0 with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge earlier in the day, and five points clear of Roberto Di Matteo’s side in the race for fourth spot.