Arsenal thump Liverpool; Mnchester United ease past Aston Villa; Bayern beat Dortmund

After the international break football was back across Europe and there were a few exciting matches in store. Arsenal sent Liverpool back home crying with a 4-1 victory while Manchester United recorded a tricky win against Aston Villa.

Liverpool visited the Emirates in search of a win after the defeat against fierce rivals Manchester United. Arsene Wenger, who conceded that the title was beyond his team’s grasp, led his troops out to secure a Champions League spot. Liverpool, without Daniel Sturridge and Steven Gerrard, made many clumsy mistakes in the opening minutes and if it wasn’t for the heroics of Mignolet, the Reds would’ve been a few goals down in the first ten minutes. Sterling, who’s on the brink of a transfer away from Liverpool, showed impressive skill but a goal eluded his team. Arsenal opened the scoring in the 37th minute, when Bellerin executed a lovely one-two with Ramsey, before curling the ball past Mignolet. A few minutes later, Ozil doubled his side’s lead with a sublime free-kick.

Matters got even worse for Liverpool when Sanchez hit a missile into the top of the net past the hapless Mignolet. The second half began with Arsenal dominating the proceedings and Liverpool looked clueless. The three goals in eight minutes seemed to shaken the team’s confidence and although Henderson converted a penalty in the 76th minute, there was no way back for the Reds. It went fom bad to worse when Emre Can was sent off for a second bookable offence, this time on Danny Welbeck. A man up, Arsenal compounded Liverpool’s misery, with Giroud curling in a shot into the top-left corner.

Manchester United, high on their confidence after the win against Liverpool, hosted Aston Villa in a relatively easy fixture for the Red Devils. Aston Villa defended deep and their two centre-backs helped maintain a 0-0 score throughout the first half. Ander Herrera scored in the 43rd minute, almost passing the ball into the back of the net. The early miniutes of the second-half were without incident with both sides creating plenty of half-chances. In the 79th minute, Rooney smashed in a sensational volley after controlling the ball with his right foot to double his side’s lead.

Villa responded immedaitely after Benteke slid in a low finish past De Gea, putting his side back in the game. Manchester United survived the nervy last ten miniutes and in the 90th minute, Herrera destroyed all Villa hopes, when the Spaniard timed in a lovely run into the box almost caressing the ball into the back of the net. United moved into 3rd spot with this win, while the Gunners surged into 2nd spot after their thrashing of Liverpool.

In the German Bundesliga, Wolfsburg beat VfB Stuttgart 3-1 to continue their glorious run this season while Bayer Leverkusen ran riot with a 4-0 win against Hamburg. And in the match of the week, Bayern Munich triumphed in the Der Klassiker with Robert Lewandowski scoring the solitary goal against his former side Borussia Dortmund. In a fierce encounter, both sides attacked ferociously but Bayern came out on top, when the former Dortmund man nodded the ball into an empty net after some smart play by Thomas Muller. This win maintained Bayern’s lead at the top of the table, while Dortmund are languising at 10th.

Atletico Madrid beat Cordoba in a relatively easy match with both their goals coming in the first-half through Girezmann and Saul Niguez. Atletico moved to third place after this win and since Diego Simeone announced that Champions League qualification is his side’s primary motive this year, this is welcome win for the Rojiblancos.