Aaron Ramsey scored Arsenal's second goal in this afternoon's win at Aston Villa

Published: 13 December, 2015 
By STEVE BARNETT 

Premier League 
ASTON VILLA 0, ARSENAL 2 

ARSENE Wenger revealed that there was a method in his madness of playing Aaron Ramsey out of position after the Welsh midfielder put in a starring role during Arsenal's 2-0 victory against Aston Villa this afternoon (Sunday). 

Ramsey has often been used out wide by the Gunners' boss, but with Santi Cazorla facing a lengthy spell on the sidelines with a knee injury, Wenger has pushed the 24-year-old back into the middle of the park. 

It's brought the best back out in Ramsey, who followed up the goal and assist he got against Sunderland last weekend with another goal at Villa Park.

"Ramsey had an outstanding performance today," beamed Wenger. "I think of course he is naturally more of a central midfielder. 

"I pushed him out wide for a while because I believe we have seen many times that when players are pushed against the line they need to shorten their technique. When they come back into the middle again, they are better players."

Ramsey capped a man-of-the-match display against Villa by scoring a stunning goal on 38 minutes. He won the ball in his own half with a well-timed tackle before setting up a counter-attack that ended with his getting on the end of Mesut Ozil's unselfish pass to tap the ball into an unguarded net.

Olivier Giroud had earlier opened the scoring from the penalty spot after Alan Hutton pulled back Theo Walcott in the box. The French forward coolly side-footed home his 14th goal of the season to become the seventh player to score 50 Premier League goals for Arsenal. 

The win fired the Gunners to the top of the table, completing a good week for the club which also saw them progress to the knockout stages of the Champions League. 

Wenger joked that he was due a good week to "balance" things out a little. He said: "I was a bit anxious today as we had given a lot on Wednesday in the Champions League and came back very, very late on Thursday morning. 

"I know that Villa was fighting to survive and it was maybe a set of important points to win against a team low on confidence. Overall, it was a controlled performance and a great week for us." 

ARSENAL: Cech, Bellerin, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Monreal, Flamini, Ramsey, Campbell (Gibbs, 64), Walcott (Oxlade-Chamberlain, 64), Ozil (Chambers, 86), Giroud. 
Substitutes not used: Ospina, Debuchy, Gabriel, Iwobi. 
Attendance: 33,285